Ben D. — Guitar Teacher — Ahuntsic, Montreal

Praised as “a natural performer who infuses his interpretations with energy, excitement, and a broad expressive range”, Montréal based guitarist Ben Diamond is a well rounded musician who’s passion knows no limits. He is active as an educator, improviser, performer, and collaborator pursuing a wide variety of projects that constantly push the limits of the 21st century classical guitar. A recent graduate from the M. Mus in performance program at Schulich School of Music (McGill University), Ben’s primary focus is the collaboration with composers to create new works for the guitar. It is his success in premiering contemporary music and love for community building that has earned him many accolades such as the “CBC 30 under 30 hot classical musicians” in 2021, the 2021 ArtsNL Emerging Artist of the year award, and a nomination for the 2021 Classical Musician of the Year award with MusicNL. Ben has also placed in competitions such as the 2019 FCMF National Music Festival (SK), 2022 Twisted Spruce International Competition (Virtual), the 2023 Domaine Forget International Guitar Competition (QC) and the Festival-concours de musique Sherbrooke (2024).

As a teacher, my philosophy is to combine listening, and understanding with technique that is comfortable, well thought, and rational. The guitar is an instrument that wears many hats - from pop music, to classical interpretation, I have dedicated my life to learning as many different perspectives as possible to feel connected to my instrument and craft. As a student of mine, I hope you are able to understand the connection between sounding good, and feeling good while playing. If you are tense, then your music will sound tense. But if you fully understand what your hands are doing, how your body responds, and hear your notes to their full sustain, then the guitar will reward you with its many incredible colors.