Today’s #MusicMonday spotlight is shining on Ben Pila. This local musician was discovered by the Hard Rock Tampa during June’s Tampa Bay Acoustic Music Festival in the Hard Rock Cafe.
- Ben is an exceptionally talented classical guitarist with a Master’s from The Juilliard School and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from USC.
- He has performed extensively throughout the United States and is a regular performer at the September 11th Commemoration at Ground Zero in New York City.
- Ben started playing guitar when he was 12 and “obsessed” with Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne.
- He went to Blake High School to play in their electric guitar program but there was a new teacher that year and the program was changed to a classical guitar program.
- He almost transferred schools but stuck it out and has been playing classical guitar, with a twist, ever since.
- Ben plays a soloette guitar, also known as a wire frame travel guitar.
- His set for the Tampa Bay Acoustic Music Festival included a mix of classical, pop, and tango covers including “Here Comes The Sun” and “Yesterday” by the Beatles, the “Game of Thrones” theme song, a Brazilian, Argentine and French tango and an incredible “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen to close out the set.
- Ben doesn’t write songs but has released a CD titled Commemoration. It is a selection of the music he has performed during the 9/11 memorials and is a tribute to the survivors and victims’ of 9/11.
- Ben teaches at Polk State College and plays mostly private events.
- Ben has already been booked for Hard Rock Tampa’s Taste of Tuscany, a private event in the High Limit Slot Room that lasted the duration of the week.
