Ben­jamin J. Sh

  Ben­jamin be­came a tour­ing mu­si­cian at the age of 16,and spent the next 25+years on the road tour­ing with nu­mer­ous bands as a bassist,and record­ing al­bums and ses­sions with renowned pro­duc­ers Steve Al­bini,Jimbo Bar­ton,J.J.Blair,Sylvia Massy,and Rick Parashar.In 1999,he was signed to Epic Records,as bassist for the rock band U.P.O.which re­leased rock ra­dio sin­gles chart­ing in the Top 5.
  By 2011,al­co­hol and drug ad­dic­tion had dri­ven Ben­jamin into home­less­ness.He took refuge in the Mid­night Mis­sion on L.A.’s Skid Row,and would live in the shel­ter for the next 26 months.
  Dur­ing this time,Ben­jamin fo­cused on so­bri­ety,and soon re­dis­cov­ered his pas­sion for mu­sic.He re­turned to school at the Los An­ge­les City Col­lege Mu­sic Acad­emy in 2012.
  In 2015,Ben­jamin was ac­cepted into the pres­ti­gious San Fran­cisco Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic,as a stu­dent in the in­au­gural class of the Tech­nol­ogy and Ap­plied Com­po­si­tion(TAC)Pro­gram.He is cur­rently on a one-year leave for Pro­fes­sional De­vel­op­ment.
  In 2017 Ben­jamin earned a schol­ar­ship to Shas­tra,where he com­pleted Shas­tra’s an­nual Sum­mer In­ten­sive in In­dian clas­si­cal mu­sic,taught by ac­claimed In­dian-Amer­i­can com­poser Reena Es­mail,and renowned Hin­dus­tani clas­si­cal vo­cal­ist Saili Oak.Through this schol­ar­ship,Ben­jamin arranged the Hin­dus­tani bha­jan“Mil­taa Jaa Jo,”for clas­si­cal string quar­tet,fea­tur­ing In­dian vo­cals by Saili Oak.
  Draw­ing in­spi­ra­tion from a life lived on the edge,Ben­jamin J.Shirley is a Los An­ge­les based com­poser-or­ches­tra­tor who is known for suc­ceed­ing against most odds.Af­ter spend­ing more than two years as a res­i­dent of the Mid­night Mis­sion,a home­less shel­ter on Los An­ge­les’no­to­ri­ous Skid Row,Ben­jamin has emerged a re­spected com­poser,or­ches­tra­tor,and arranger who brings a dis­tinc­tive per­spec­tive,and re­lent­less work ethic to film com­po­si­tion and con­cert mu­sic.
  Ben­jamin was the first Com­poser Fel­low for Street Sym­phony,a 501(c)(3)or­ga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cated to en­gag­ing un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties ex­pe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness and in­car­cer­a­tion in Los An­ge­les through mu­si­cal per­for­mance and di­a­logue.Founded by Artis­tic Di­rec­tor Vi­jay Gupta(First Vi­o­lins,L.A.Phil­har­monic),Street Sym­phony is com­prised of mem­bers of the L.A.Phil,and the Los An­ge­les Mas­ter Chorale.As Com­poser Fel­low,Ben­jamin stud­ied com­po­si­tion un­der in­ter­na­tion­ally ac­claimed com­poser,and Street Sym­phony Com­poser in Res­i­dence,Reena Es­mail.
  Through this fel­low­ship,Ben­jam­in’s com­mis­sioned piece,“We Need Dark­ness to See the Stars,”(string or­ches­tra,dou­ble choir)had its world pre­miere at the Mes­siah Pro­ject on De­cem­ber 8,2017.The Kennedy Cen­ter for the Per­form­ing Arts live-streamed the Mes­siah Pro­ject,giv­ing the piece a global re­lease.
  Street Sym­phony has also com­mis­sioned nu­mer­ous works based on the writ­ings of Rumi.Ben­jam­in’s“….in the Spirit of Rumi,”(bas­soon/tenor voice)has been per­formed sev­eral times.“Don’t Go Back to Sleep,”(oboe/alto),“Whit­ley Heights,”(brass quin­tet)and“In­tel­li­gent Eyes”(flute,oboe,clar­inet Bb,trum­pet Bb,dou­ble bass)are set to pre­miere in 2019.
  In Oc­to­ber 2018 the world pre­miere of Ben’s piece“Brother Burn”(clar­inet Bb/tenor),was per­formed by An­thony McGill,prin­ci­pal clar­inetist of the New York Phil­har­monic,and Todd Strange,tenor with the Los An­ge­les Mas­ter Chorale and Los An­ge­les Opera,in con­junc­tion with the Los An­ge­les Cham­ber Or­ches­tra,as part of USC’s Vi­sions and Voices se­ries.
  In ad­di­tion,the Street Sym­phony reg­u­larly per­forms“Mid­night to 12:01”an orig­i­nal string quin­tet com­po­si­tion writ­ten as part of Ben­jam­in’s au­di­tion for the San Fran­cisco Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic,and gifted to the Mid­night Mis­sion.“Mid­night to 12:01”pre­miered at the 2015 An­nual Golden Heart Awards Gala.
  In 2018,Ben­jamin was el­e­vated to the po­si­tion of Co-Com­poser in Res­i­dence at Street Sym­phony along­side his men­tor,Reena Es­mail.Ben’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in this role in­clude work­ing as a Teach­ing Artist,now pro­vid­ing com­po­si­tion lessons to a new com­poser fel­low within Street Sym­phony.He con­tin­ues to re­ceive lessons from Reena Es­mail.
  Ben was also com­mis­sioned by the Sarlo Foun­da­tion for George Sar­lo’s 90th birth­day,and pro­vided orig­i­nal mu­sic for the Cana­dian film en­ti­tled,“The Guardian.”
  Ben­jamin has worked as com­poser as­sis­tant to award-win­ning film&tele­vi­sion com­poser Kim Plan­ert.Plan­ert wrote the orig­i­nal mo­tion pic­ture sound­track to Skid Row Marathon,a fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary,which fol­lows the story of a Los An­ge­les judge who starts a run­ning club on Skid Row,giv­ing mem­bers-in­clud­ing Ben­jamin-a sec­ond chance at life as they bat­tle their ad­dic­tions.The film has won nu­mer­ous awards while on the fes­ti­val cir­cuit,in­clud­ing awards at the 2017 Los An­ge­les Film Fes­ti­val,Napa Val­ley Film Fes­ti­val,Coro­n­ado Is­land Film Fes­ti­val,and the Port Townsend Film Fes­ti­val.
  As one of the run­ners pro­filed in the film,Ben­jamin was in­vited to work on the score with Plan­ert,pro­vid­ing ad­di­tional sound tex­tures,and con­duct­ing a piece at the fi­nal scor­ing ses­sion.Ben also serves as co-or­ches­tra­tor for Plan­ert’s forth­com­ing de­but al­bum,which will be re­leased in 2018.