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Ben Siems

The Willie August Project, a group with a distinctive sound with postbop and ECM influences, is named for guitarist/composer Ben Siems' late grandfather, and is the brainchild of Siems and percussionist Jeremy Hauer.

About Me

Ben Siems is a classically trained cellist and a self-taught guitarist. He discovered jazz while attending Brown University, and began adding jazz discs to the folk, blues, and rock recordings he played along with on guitar. The Willie August Project's music reflects this eclectic background -- much of it clearly identifiable as jazz, but with hints of classical shaping of melodic phrases, certainly a focus on composition, and very clear folk and blues influences. Over the years since Siems and Hauer founded the group, this 'little jazz project that could,' has gained national and international recognition, receiving radio play on over sixty stations worldwide, including charting in early 2006 as the #1 New Addition to XM Satellite Radio Real Jazz. The group's distinctive sound, built around the remarkable, instinctive rhythmic interplay of Siems and Hauer, is instantly recognizable to jazz fans in the Upper Midwest of the United States and beyond.

In addition to composing the music of the Willie August Project and leading the group as its guitarist, Siems also composes classically-influenced new music and frequently collaborates with choreographers, theater companies, and independent filmmakers. His most talked-about creation is, Threshold: Entrancending; Incantascence, a memerizing four-hands cello duet that may be viewed at http://mnartists.org/Ben_Siems. Since 2001, Siems has received over a two dozens grants and awards for his work as a composer-performer, including multiple grants from the American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer, Inc., and a Finalist Award in the 2008 Song of the Year international songwriting competition.