Bassist, composer, producer & educator Ben Allison has been performing and recording his own brand of original music for nearly three decades. He has released 19 albums of original music, 7 of which reached #1 on the national jazz radio charts, garnering him 9 SESAC Performance Awards.  As a bandleader, he has organized and led many tours throughout the world, headlining at international festivals, concert halls, theaters, and clubs. He wrote the theme for the popular NPR radio program On The Media, which is heard by over 1,500,000 listeners weekly, and has written music for numerous TV commercials, short films and theatrical productions. As a bassist, he has appeared on over 100 albums by various artists. Ben is an active voice for artists rights, education and empowerment. At the age of 25, he formed the Jazz Composers Collective, a non-profit organization that fostered and presented new music. He acted as the Collective’s Executive Director from 1992 until 2005. He has received commissioning grants from a wide range of foundations incuding Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, and The Aaron Copeland fund, among others. Ben served two terms as President of the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy and chaired the Advocacy Committee from 2012-2019. He has testified in front of Congress and was a strong voice in the creation of the Music Modernization Act, the most significant copyright reform bill of the past 40 years. He performed his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012. www.benallison.com/