Ben Sollee

Ben Sollee
Sollee performing live
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Croft Sollee
Origin	Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Genres	Bluegrass Folk Jazz R&B Contemporary Classical
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer, songwriter, composer
Instruments	Cello
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Tin Ear Records, Sub Pop, SonaBLAST! Records
Associated acts	Sparrow Quartet Vienna Teng
Website	www.bensollee.com

Ben Sollee (born November 28, 1983) is an American cellist, singer-songwriter, and composer known for his political activism. His music incorporates banjo, guitar, and mandolin along with percussion and unusual cello techniques. His songs exhibit a mix of folk, bluegrass, jazz, and R&B elements. Sollee has also composed longer instrumental pieces for dance ensembles and for film.

Sollee was raised in Lexington, Kentucky, and attended public schools where he was introduced to the cello in the fourth grade. Yates Elementary School orchestra teacher Ellen Dennison brought a collection of musical instruments to her class and demonstrated them for students. Sollee was quickly charmed by what he called the "growly" sound of the cello and chose it as the instrument to learn to play and he eventually became the only cello player in his school orchestra. In addition to studying classical music in school, Sollee was exposed to other kinds of music at home and in his extended family. His father, Robert, was an R&B guitar player and his mother, Myra, was a singer. Most especially, his maternal grandfather, Elvis Henry Cornelius was an Appalachian fiddler. Music around the home featured recordings of such artists as Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, Phoebe Snow, and Otis Redding. As he was growing up, Sollee spent many hours in the company of his fiddler grandfather at jam sessions and gatherings in the barns and hollers of rural Kentucky, picking out as best he could on his cello the fiddle tunes and folk songs of the Appalachian Plateau. His growth as a musician, and eventually as a songwriter, straddled two non-overlapping worlds—that of classical music during his days in the school program, and the distinctly non academic music of his rustic family forebears in the evenings and on weekends.

At the age of 17, Sollee became a member of the house band, known as the "Folk Boy Orchestra," on the syndicated weekly radio show, WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, hosted by Michael Johnathon. Through this participation, Sollee was exposed to a wide range of professional musicians and performers who appeared as featured guests on the show. He played regularly as the house cellist until the summer of 2006 - after more than 200 shows. Sollee was also a guest performer on the WoodSongs program while still in high school, on October 29, 2001. He eventually performed as a guest on several occasions: As a solo artist on September 10, 2007; as a member of the Sparrow Quartet on May 19, 2008; with colleague Daniel Martin Moore on January 11, 2010; and again as a solo artist on April 29, 2013.