A Portland native, Ben Darwish has been playing piano since the age of six. He also plays drums, guitar, and sings. At age sixteen, he won Portland Battle Of The Bands at the Roseland Theater with his rock group, Chill Factor. At the age of eighteen, Ben studied for two years with Randy Porter, pianist for Charles McPherson and Madeline Eastman. He since has played in the Mt. Hood Jazz Band and recorded their 2003 release “I’m New Here” on the Seabreeze label. After attending Mt. Hood for two years, he attended University of Oregon and received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies. Upon graduation, he was awarded “Outstanding Undergraduate Performer in Jazz Studies”. He currently performs frequently and teaches piano at Ethos Music Center, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of music and music-based education for youth in underserved communities.

In the jazz setting, Ben has played with many artists including: Kevin Mohagany, Rich Perry, Ron Miles, Devin Phillips, Esperanza Spalding, and Alan Jones. In others genres, he’s performed with Reggie Watts, Bill Summers (of The Headhunters), Stephanie Schneiderman, Ohmega Watts, and Ryan Dolliver, just to name a few. In 2003, he won the Jazz Society of Oregon Young Musician scholarship. Most recently, he was the winner of the 2008 downbeat award for Outstanding Big Band Performance. He was nominated for “Outstanding Achievement In Jazz” by the 2009 Portland Music Awards and released his second Trio album in February 2009, entitled “Ode To Consumerism”. The Ben Darwish Group was recently invited to audition at Jazz At Lincoln Center for the Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program. Although they weren’t chosen as finalists, Darwish used this experience to develop an educational presentation on the history of Jazz which he will be presenting in several schools in the Portland area.

“Do not forget about Portland’s jazz scene. And if you do, God save you, let Darwish teach you a lesson.” -Willamette Week November 2008