Saturday, February 01, 2025 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm | Hanes House
Join us for an evening with Mutantrumpet in the Hanes House
Doors at 6:00, Music at 7:00 | Get Tickets
This concert is supported by Dawn and Vaughn McCall and Charlie and Christy Elberson.
Composer/performer Ben Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument, and is recognized as a musical innovator who "uses a schizophrenic trumpet to create art music for the people" (Wired Magazine). Neill generates immersive musical experiences that merge ambient music, electronic grooves, and interactive video, all controlled live by his instrument. He'll be joined by Dolphin Uppercut Avenger assisting with the visual component of the performance.
Neill developed the first acoustic Mutantrumpet which combined three trumpets with a trombone in the early 1980's. He later collaborated with synthesizer legend Robert Moog to incorporate electronic elements, eventually developing a computerized version in 1992 during a residency at the STEIM research studios in Amsterdam. The latest iteration of the Mutantrumpet debuted in 2019 in his electronic opera, Fantini Futoro.
13 albums of Neill's music have been released on labels including Verve, Astralwerks, and Thirsty Ear. His most recent recording Prana Cantos was released on Six Degrees Records in 2023, part of their Soundbalm ambient music and meditation series. He has appeared at BAM Next Wave Festival, Big Ears, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Broad Museum, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, Getty Museum, Cite de la Musique, Moogfest, Spoleto Festival, Umbria Jazz, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Vienna Jazz Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival, among others.
A longtime close associate of minimalist pioneer La Monte Young, Neill has also work with David Wojnarowicz, John Cage, David Berhman, Nicolas Collins, John Cale, Petr Kotik, Pauline Oliveros, Rhys Chatham, DJ Spooky, Mimi Goese, and King Britt. He was the Music Curator at The Kitchen in New York City from 1992-98.
Neill is a native of North Carolina and attended RJ Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem. His first book, Diffusing Music: Trajectories of Sonic Democratization, was released by Bloomsbury Press in December 2024.