Peace Love & Guitars Video Fest

Dear Friends,
Happy November!!! I hope this finds you and your loved ones in the best health and spirits!

Since March 2020 and continuing, artists around the globe have had to find a way to make their art during the most devastating pandemic of their lifetimes. In October of 2020 I contacted my dear friend John Olson, who is the director of the New York City Classical Guitar Society, and asked him if he thought the Society would host two video benefit concerts.

The idea of presenting a series of videos in a concert format came to me after I made the video Atlantis with composer/instrumentalist Elizabeth Brown and her husband, visual artist Lothar Osterberg, in August of 2020. I realized that like Atlantis, I had a few pieces that were previously recorded and for which the videos could be made with each musician syncing their parts from wherever they were.

Slowly I contacted many of my favorite musicians and asked if they would be part of this project. To my utter delight they all said yes! Most of the music for the videos was not pre-recorded. All of us managed to record together in covid-safe spaces or record separately at home as best we could.

With the help of many and particularly John Olson, we managed to present/premier 16 videos on two separate concerts on February 12 and April 23, 2021, and raised $5,200 for 3 organizations:
World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org/)
Americans for the Arts (https://www.americansforthearts.org/)
Volunteers of America (https://www.voa.org/homeless-people).

Beginning Friday, November 5 and ending November 20 we are releasing the videos, one each day, as part of a Peace Love & Guitars Video fest! These are hosted here and on my YouTube channel and in some cases on other artists’ video channels as well.

It can’t be stated enough how eternally grateful I am to all of the extraordinary artists, friends and family who made these videos a reality!!  

As always, Peace, Love and Guitars!
Ben