40 | Preschool Music Classes with Ben Bowen
Our special guest is Ben Bowen of Mr. Ben’s Open Door Music. He is a Preschool Children’s Music Educator from Hamilton, Ontario. In this episode Ben discusses the challenges of facilitating immersive music programs for children under the age of 5 years old and how he uses classical music and songwriting to keep his students (and himself) inspired and engaged.
Music Featured in This Episode:
▶️ Spring Song (by Ben Bowen, from the album “Beautiful Day”)
About Our Guest:
Mr. Ben has been working with children for over 20 years, and since 2011 has been sharing music and songs with little ones of preschool age as both an early childhood music educator and an engaging children’s entertainer. He owns and operates the popular Mr. Ben’s Open Door Music in Hamilton.
A tireless composer, he was the Director of Theatre Ancaster’s highly-esteemed Jitterbugs musical theatre program from 2012 until 2016, during which time he wrote a great deal of original music for small children to sing onstage, including musical versions of The Selfish Giant, Where the Wild Things Are (unauthorized), Dr Seuss’Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and Leo Lionni’s Frederick.
Ben studied jazz trumpet at Humber College, holds an Hons BFA in Music, and pursued graduate studies in Musicology at York University. He is featured as a guest musician on more than 30 studio albums by artists such as Danny Medakovic, Dave Pomfret, Lily Frost, Great Aunt Ida, A Northern Chorus, and Mary Simon, (full list here: benbowen.ca/discography.php), and after releasing his first EP of kids’ folk music (The Bumblebee EP on iTunes), opened for the legendary Fred Penner in St. Catharines in 2011. When he is not busy making music with the young’uns, he continues to play trumpet as a sideman and leader in the GTA, most notably as a member of the Geoff Hudson Band.
Webite: https://www.benbowen.ca/
Music on Bandcamp: https://mrben.bandcamp.com/
photo credit: Stephanie Ablett
