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<\/p>\nBen Folds has always enjoyed defying expectations. The band he led for many years, Ben Folds Five, was a trio, not a quintet. And while the Winston-Salem native is no comedy act, a sense of humor informs his emotionally rich, supremely melodic works, music he once characterized as \u201cpunk rock for sissies.\u201d Having conquered multiple musical forms and media, these days Folds seamlessly blends his rock sensibilities with orchestral accompaniment. Joined by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Darko Butorac, Ben Folds comes to the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on October 10.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During its run \u2013 1994 to 2000 and then again for a few years in the early 2010s \u2013 the guitar-less Ben Folds Five scored four Top 40 singles on the U.S. Alternative Airplay chart. The band\u2019s biggest success, 1997\u2019s Whatever and Ever Amen<\/i> sold more than a million copies. From there, Folds launched a solo career, building upon many of the same musical values: strong piano-based melodies, wry and incisive lyrics and sharp hooks.<\/p>\n
Folds\u2019 artistry has long extended beyond alt-rock. An enthusiastic collaborator, he has worked with Amanda Palmer, Nick Hornby, William Shatner and others. Folds has composed for soundtracks including the brand-new \u201cPeanuts\u201d special Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical<\/i>. He has ventured into acting, and served as a judge on an NBC talent competition, The Sing-Off<\/i>. He hosted a podcast, and he\u2019s a published author (2019\u2019s A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons<\/i>).<\/p>\n
Beginning in 2005, Folds began a series of collaborations with symphony orchestras in Australia and the U.S. His 2015 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra claimed the top spot on two Billboard<\/i> charts. The artistic success of those ventures led him farther into that world. In 2019 \u2013 halfway through the first presidential term of Donald Trump \u2013 he took on the role of artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at Washington D.C.\u2019s Kennedy Center. Folds\u2019 role looked to be apolitical, and the then-president initially displayed little or no interest in the cultural activities of the NSO and Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause [in his first term] he never tried to make the Kennedy Center an extension of his partisan politics, I wasn\u2019t going to be a dick and say, \u2018I\u2019m not [working for] the Kennedy Center because I don\u2019t agree with the president,\u201d Folds says today. During his time with the NSO, Folds launched a concert series showcasing classical and modern music, worked to encourage more listeners to develop appreciation for classical music, and established music advocacy programs for students.<\/p>\n
But in early 2025, Trump initiated his return to the White House with a series of initiatives purportedly designed to purge the country of what he viewed as \u201cwoke\u201d sentiments and practices. That effort included firing and replacing all members of the Kennedy Center\u2019s board of directors with his ideological acolytes. In response, Folds resigned. If he had stayed on, he explains, \u201cI was going to have to be a pawn and stand behind him while he talks.\u201d Moreover, Folds believed that Trump\u2019s close involvement would discourage quality artists from performing at the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n
Happily for fans of culture, art and music, Folds got in a parting shot. Released on July 4, Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra<\/i> is drawn from two autumn 2024 performances at the Kennedy Center. The 14-track album features re-imagined arrangements of classics from Folds\u2019 catalog plus new works written for orchestra. For Folds, there\u2019s no line between the two forms. \u201cIt\u2019s all part of the same thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Folds has heard that some listeners prefer the new, orchestral versions of songs like \u201cStill Fighting It,\u201d originally written and recorded for his solo debut, 2001\u2019s Rockin\u2019 the Suburbs<\/i>. Fans thinking of the Live with the NSO<\/i> version as \u201cpossibly the [most] valid version of the song is a great surprise,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Darko Butorac is Music Director for the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, and he\u2019ll be conducting the ASO when Folds joins them onstage. It won\u2019t be the first time the two men have worked together. \u201cComing out of the pandemic, Ben was about to tour with some newer pieces that he had written,\u201d Butorac recalls. \u201cI was Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony at that time, and we were the first orchestra on the tour. It was such a treat!\u201d<\/p>\n
Performing with an orchestra is freeing for Ben Folds, but perhaps not in the way one might expect. \u201cI\u2019ve played with so many orchestras that I now know not to play everything,\u201d he says. And that sometimes catches his collaborators off guard. \u201cA lot of times the conductor asks for more of my piano in his hot spot [monitor speaker],\u201d Folds explains. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there going, \u2018Dude, I\u2019m not even playing! You can turn it up if you want to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Orchestra musicians get a few hours at most in rehearsal with Folds before a performance, and they play with sheet music. \u201cEight hours prior to the show, none of these people knew the music,\u201d Folds says with a laugh. And as with a conventional rock concert, spontaneity reigns. \u201cMy tempos are steady; they\u2019re the same every night,\u201d Folds emphasizes. \u201cBut with an orchestra, god knows what you\u2019re going to get from song to song.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalls a recent performance of the song \u201cKristine from the 7th<\/sup> Grade.\u201d One part of Folds\u2019 score calls for the cellists to play staccato<\/i>: short, detached notes with silence between them. \u201cBut they all decided to bow it, to play it legato<\/i> [smooth and continuous notes],\u201d Folds says. \u201cSuddenly I had to interpret the next line differently than I would have. And I don\u2019t mind those kind of curve balls.\u201d<\/p>\n Butorac feels the same way. \u201cThe opportunity for improvisation \u2013 as we would find in popular music \u2013 is not always present\u201d in an orchestral context, he concedes. \u201cBut individual expression takes place within the parameters that are on the page. So even with the most scripted performance material, the individuality of the musicians comes through.\u201d<\/p>\n While readily acknowledging Ben Folds\u2019 compositional skills, Butorac says that in his view, \u201cBen\u2019s biggest genius is [in] his lyrics. His words are touching; they connect with audiences on a deep, personal level.\u201d And that connection affects the orchestral musicians onstage, too. \u201cFor all these songs that we do with him, the music is tied into the lyric,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it supports the lyric. That\u2019s where the expression is geared.\u201d<\/p>\n Making Live with the National Symphony Orchestra<\/i> was an exciting endeavor for Folds. \u201cWe had two [nights] to do everything,\u201d he says, emphasizing that most modern post-production \u201cfixes\u201d aren\u2019t possible on orchestral recordings. \u201cIt holds your feet to the fire of being in the moment.\u201d Folds believes that there\u2019s a wisdom greater than a musician\u2019s studio editing skills. In performance, \u201cif there\u2019s a bad moment, the next moment recovers, and that tells a story. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Popular thinking often holds that rock musicians are edgy while orchestral players are comparatively stiff and uptight. Ben Folds isn\u2019t having it. \u201cWith an orchestra, you’re trying to get 80 people on the same page,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s the most rough and tumble music you\u2019ll ever see played!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ben Folds has always enjoyed defying expectations. The band he led for many years, Ben Folds Five, was a trio, not a quintet. And while the Winston-Salem native is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44,49,62],"tags":[5139,4214],"class_list":["post-30006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-asheville-symphony","tag-ben-folds","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30009,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30006\/revisions\/30009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}