Emmy-award-winning composer, singer-songwriter, and pianist Ben Folds joins ACSO for an inspiring closing conference keynote session and the San Francisco Symphony for a night of exceptional performances. 

Widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation, Folds' enormous body of genre-bending music includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborative records. His latest album, 2023’s What Matters Most, is a blend of piano-driven pop-rock songs, while his 2015 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra soared to #1 on both the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts.

An active performer, podcast host and New York Times Best Selling author, he is a longtime advocate for arts and music education funding and serves on the Board of the Arts Action Fund for Americans for the Arts. For the past two decades, Folds has shared the stage with some of the world's greatest orchestras, and is in his seventh year as Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He also launched a charitable initiative in his native state of North Carolina that provides free or affordable piano lessons to interested school-age children.

Connect with Ben on Instagram. Learn more about Ben Folds here.