Educator, Scholar, Composer, and saxophonist Benjamin Boone was born in the small textile town of Statesville, NC in 1963; related to Daniel Boone; his father was a traveling glue salesman/furniture-manufacturing trouble-shooter and his mother a homemaker and teacher; youngest of five sons; music career began in grade-school when he wrote music for his puppet shows (including the hit “My Name is Cookie Monster” -- penned at age 9); undergraduate degree in in saxophone and theory, masters and doctorate in music composition; moved all over since to Knoxville, Boulder, Boston, New York, Aiken SC, Washington DC, and Asheville; recorded rhinoceros vocalizations in Zimbabwe and Zambia with noted biologist; researched the pitch relationships of spoken American English (see Groves Dictionary under “blue note”); Fulbright “Senior Specialist Scholar” to the Republic of Moldova; compositions performed all over the world and on numerous CD’s; award-winning teacher at UT; was a Music Manager in New York (think Robert Palmer's back-up band); teaches theory and composition at California State University, Fresno where is also the “Faculty Service-Learning Mentor”; numerous faculty honors at Fresno State including the “President's Award of Excellence” and the “Provost's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities”; played sax all over the U.S.A. and Europe; CD in national airplay charts top 100 for 3 weeks; loves to ski, compose, learn, read, teach and play with his wife and kids; enjoys ”30 Rock”, “The Thomas Jefferson Hour”, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”, NPR's “Radiolab” and “Wait, wait, don't tell me”, and the principles of the Enlightenment.
Web: http://www.benjaminboone.net/bio.shtml (2011)