Amy and Ben first met when they were hired to play on the same recording project at KBOO radio studios. They quickly discovered they enjoyed each other's musical company and wanted to continue to collaborate after the session ended. Together they came up with a project to pair Bach inventions with jazz standards, a blending of their individual strengths. The performance of the final product received high praise from the Portland Classical Revolution community. In addition to classical and jazz styles, they have since branched out into folk songs, latin music, and fiddling. Their music is diverse and versatile, enhancing events from ceremonies to parties, reverent to festive.
Ben Finley
Ben has taken a roundabout musical path from his hometown of Columbia, Missouri to his current residence in Portland, Oregon. As a kid he found refuge in rock and jazz, played the saxophone and guitar, and by his late teens he began studying classical guitar. He studied at both the University of Arizona and North Carolina School of the Arts, and at the latter he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2001 in classical guitar performance. Ben spent 2003-2005 teaching at the St. Lucia School of Music in the South Caribbean, where he taught music theory, ensembles and private lessons, and where he performed jazz, reggae, and classical music regularly throughout the island. In 2005 Ben moved to the Bay Area, where he continued to teach and involve himself in a variety of collaborative endeavors, including jazz, electronic rock, folk, old-timey swing, performance installation, and accompaniment of modern dance, and where he adopted a second profession working on charter boats on the Bay as captain and crew. Since moving to Portland in late-2014, Ben has performed funk, Brazilian, classical, and jazz music and is teaching both privately and for a local studio. |
Amy Roesler
Due to family legacy, music has been a part of Amy’s life for as long as she can remember. Officially, she started playing the violin at age eight. She discovered early on that music is her favorite way to relate to and communicate with people. Unsatisfied with just one musical outlet, it wasn’t long before she branched out into other instruments, such as piano, double bass, and percussion. In high school she took up jazz and rock. Amy continued her music training at Brigham Young University, earning Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis in education in 2010. While in Utah she spent seven years performing with the Orchestra on Temple Square, the orchestra that accompanies the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir, all while teaching middle school orchestra full-time. Since returning to Portland, Amy has found a balance between teaching orchestra part-time and playing concerts and shows. She has performed in the pit for four musical productions with the major theaters in the area, such as Broadway Rose and Lakewood. She also frequently plays for cabarets and variety shows, with genres ranging from classical, jazz, rock, and bluegrass. |