Teacher Profile: Benjamin Risemberg
About Benjamin Risemberg
Ben Risemberg is a teaching and performing multi-instrumentalist who encourages students to have fun and work hard. He understands that having fun with music lessons, combined with active practice, and displaying artistic expression to others, helps to build confidence, communication skills, and helps the individual find their personal role in the creative world.
As an educator, Mr. Risemberg has instructed many beginning to advanced students and enjoys helping them to achieve their musical goals whether it’s starting a rock band, playing solo, learning songwriting/theory, or preparing for a wide range of auditions. Mr. Risemberg has had students who performed with the Loudoun All-County guitar festival, accepted to the George Mason University Music Program in 2016. He enjoys helping students to discover how they can perform and appreciate the music they like as well as other styles of music and it doesn’t matter if it’s up on the big stage or out in the garage band.
Ben has been teaching the music lessons on Guitar, Bass Guitar, Piano, Drums, and Ukulele for over 15 years. He attended George Mason University’s College of Music in Fairfax, Virginia where he specialized in Jazz Studies. He worked with Dr. Darden Purcell, playing bass guitar in vocal jazz ensembles as well as Joe McCarthy in his afro-cuban ensemble. Additionally, Ben studied privately under Rick Whitehead and Jim Carrol who helped develop a specific jazz approach on the guitar that supports Ben’s specialization as a jazz multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator.
More recently Mr. Risemberg continues to teach, study, perform, and compose and has been working as a freelance performer and host of local open mic nights. He has performed in a variety of musical settings and styles such as jazz trio, pop, fusion, and rhythm and blues band and is currently writing and performing with Marziello and the Childhood Traumas, a local Seattle group who plays a mixture of original pop-rock tunes and lively covers, as well as a solo project where he blends electronic sounds with layers of ambient vocals and fun guitar riffs.