"Heart-aching playing." -Lightsy Darst
"Django-esque soloing...how easily he can make a well-
written song even more interesting."
-John Heidt, Vintage Guitar Magazine
"Wonderfully fluent flamenco."
- Dave Howell, The Lehigh Valley Morning Call
Ben Abrahamson is an active guitarist and composer based in the Twin Cities. His passion for flamenco guitar drove him to Taller de Músics School of Music in Barcelona, Spain, where he studied under Juan Ramón Caro.
Ben has composed extensively for live dance and theater. In 2014, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet commissioned Ben to compose "Iberian Quartet", which the MGQ premiered featuring flamenco dancer Colette Illarde. In May 2015, Ben performed "Soleá diagonal," a one-of-a-kind flamenco score for big band, as guest artist with the Macalester College Big Band. In 2016, South West High School commissioned Ben to compose "Reel for Guitar" for a hundred-piece youth guitar orchestra, which premiered at "Strut Fest". Ben also collaborated with choreographer Susana di Palma on an original score for Zorongo Flamenco's "Los Caprichios", a contemporary flamenco ballet inspired by the etchings of Goya. Ben has served as guest composer with the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Dept. in Allentown, PA, and the Macalester College Dance Dept.
He has shared the stage with such mentors as flamenco guitarists Michael Hauser and Pedro Cortés, Jr., dance veterans La Conja and Susana di Palma, jazz educator Joan Griffith, and music iconoclast Gary Lee Joyner. Ben performs with groups like Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Lulu's Playground, the Thomas Nordlund Quintet, and the Ben Abrahamson Trio.
Ben teaches private guitar lessons at the Linden Hills House of Music and group guitar and ukulele classes at Minneapolis Community & Technical College and the DVCC Performing Arts Camp in Media, PA.