Hiroya Tsukamoto is an innovative guitarist and composer who fuses folk,jazz, and world music. Born and raised in Japan, in 2000 he received a scholarship to Berklee College of music and came to the U.S.
Tsukamoto’s instrumental abilities are indeed breathtaking and astounding, but his performances are so much more than that. He has the unique capability of engaging an audience through a personable and genuine approach that transfixes his audience and almost transcends his capabilities as a guitarist. Audience members will be mesmerized; Tsukamoto plays with effortless skill on the guitar and a repertoire that will have you traveling the world, not to mention experiencing new sounds with his own compositions.
Tsukamoto headlines concerts throughout the U.S. as well as internationally including Blue Note in NYC, United Nations, and Japanese National Television (NHK). Most recently Hiroya won 2nd place in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2022.
Ben Cosgrove is a traveling composer-performer whose instrumental music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. He has performed in every U.S. state but Delaware, collaborated with groups ranging from rock bands to research scientists, and held residencies and fellowships with institutions including Acadia National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, White Mountain National Forest, Harvard University, Middlebury College, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the New England National Scenic Trail, NASA, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. Ben’s fourth studio album, The Trouble With Wilderness, an evocation of different expressions of nature and wildness within the built environment, was released in 2021. It has been the subject of an episode of the NHPR show Outside/In, was deemed one of the spring's best new releases by WBUR, and has been called "beautiful and fascinating" (The Maine Edge), "deeply impressive" (Independent Clauses) and "immediately evocative and fully arresting... brim[ming] with technical mastery and emotional capital" (Seven Days). In addition to his solo work, Ben has toured and recorded with a long list of artists that includes Ghost of Paul Revere, GoldenOak, Max García Conover, and many more. For more about Ben, please visit www.bencosgrove.com.
Doors are at 7pm, and music will begin no later than 8.