CONWAY, Ark. (March 1, 2013) - Hendrix College hosts cellist, composer, and singer-songwriter Ben Sollee on Monday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Worsham Student Performance Hall in the Student Life and Technology Center.
The event, sponsored by the Oxfam/Heifer Club at Hendrix, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Office of Student Activities at activities@hendrix.edu or call501-450-1291.
Sollee is known for his innovative playing style, genre-bending songwriting, electrifying performances, political activism, and wide appeal. His music incorporates banjo, guitar, and mandolin along with percussion and unusual cello techniques to create a unique sound. His songs exhibit a mix of folk, bluegrass, jazz, and R&B elements.
In 2005, Sollee joined with Abigail Washburn (banjo and vocals), Bela Fleck (banjo) and Casey Driessen (violin) to form The Sparrow Quartet, whose debut album was released in May 2008, the same month, Sollee's first EP If You're Gonna Lead My Country. A month later, he released his solo debut album Learning to Bend. Sollee performed at the 2011 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., both as an individual artist and with My Morning Jacket.
Sollee's music frequently touches on social issues including poverty and environmental issues. As a native of Kentucky he is especially passionate about the issue of mountaintop removal in coal mining. He frequently plays benefit concerts for the organizations Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Oxfam America, and has made several tours of Kentucky on his bicycle, stopping in smaller towns between his headlining performances
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.