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has played and recorded music with Les Claypool, Mr. Bungle, Dead Prez, The Coup, Carla Kihlstedt, Eric McFadden, George Clinton and P-Funk, Jason Newsted, former bass player of Metallica, DJ Disk, Brian Kehoe, Graeme Jennings, Isaac Stern and Fishbone. He has toured the world with his own groups, the Rilke String Quartet and Deadweight, and as a sideman with guitarist Erik McFadden.
Ben has run his private teaching studio for over 30 years. He has held an artist-in-residence position at San Francisco’s School of the Arts, taught privately at Brandeis Hillel School, and the Music City Academy.
The craziest moment I've had in the 45 years I have busked on the street is this. I was busking on Castro street in San Francisco. Castro street is the historic gay and lesbian district. I am not gay, nor am I homophobic. I had an experience when I was 18 busking in front of a bank on Castro, right across the street from the theater. A nice, well dressed man came and asked me if I wanted to play violin at a party for the "Leathermen" Club's annual party. I was a naive freshman in college, trying to put myself through an expensive conservatory playing violin in the street. If anyone out there can guess what the Leathermen Club was, well, they're probably right. It's a fetish club, with old Bears. I went to the party to play, and I walked into the room, and saw the most shocking sight an 18 year old straight boy at a gay leather fetish party has ever seen. Well, being the professional, and open minded guy I am, I proceed to walk into the room and play, as I prayed.
The most embarrassed experience I've had on the street was getting stomach flu while playing in a BART (subway) station. There was no public bathroom, and I had an "accident" before I had gathered the money from my case, and put away my violin. A group of high school kids walked by and noticed, and laughed and pointed at me, making a lot of noise.
