Arts Student of the Week: Benjamin Gunn

Niwot High School senior Benjamin Gunn believes that music is the purest form of communicating a message to someone beyond symbols and knowledge.

"For traditional visual arts," Gunn said, "you can show someone a picture and make them feel something through various symbols that they've probably encountered. But I feel music is so inspirational and important that you can convey a message without needing any previous knowledge. It is just raw emotion from the performer communicated through the audience to the audience. It's fantastic."

Gunn joined the NHS marching band his freshman year at the high school, even though he had only started playing the saxophone three months earlier, during the summer. It was Gunn's first musical instrument. "What I have experienced, what I have gotten from the marching band and the jazz band-it's been very positive, and it has given me so many different new experiences," he said. "I'm glad that I got the opportunity to try, thanks to my teachers."

In addition to the saxophone, Gunn plays guitar, bass and piano. His interest in playing music grew through the convergence of events during eighth grade at St. Vrain Community Montessori School. "It is funny to mention this," Gunn admitted, "but one of the main things that got me into the saxophone was the 2020 Pixar movie 'Soul.' I thought it was cool to see how the main character got so into the music, and that really inspired me to pick up the saxophone and try my best, and just see where I could go from there."

Gunn started taking lessons that summer. His teacher, Erick Miranda, worked with Gunn for the three months leading up to Marching Band Camp at the high school. "He was definitely a great help," Gunn said. "I didn't know many people walking into that camp about a week before school started, but it helped me form so many new connections."

Day-to-day the students had a few hours to practice the music, followed by marching the sets. "The students did that for about five days," he said. "Everybody there practices together as one big group. When camp was finished, we marched for various football games throughout the year."

Over this year's spring break in mid-March, Gunn took a trip to Japan as a part of a group called The Longmont International Friendship Exchange Band, or LIFE Band, directed by Longmont High School band director David Merrill.

Students auditioned to be a part of a group of thirty to travel to Longmont's sister city, Chino, located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The students played some solo pieces in addition to combined pieces with students from Chino. "It was a very life altering experience," Gunn said, "just to see how universal people are and music can be."

Wade Hendricks, Director of Bands at Niwot High School, selected students from NHS to audition. "I know it was a challenging audition," Hendricks said, "because only 32 students were selected with very specific instrumentation."

"I think there were over 150 students who auditioned," Gunn said. "We had various pieces to perform, and scales. I auditioned on alto saxophone and baritone saxophone. And I was able to get on with several other NHS students. In total, including me, there were five students from Niwot."

Each student had their own host family. Gunn was hosted by the Ida family. "They were very nice," Gunn said. "There were six people at the time I stayed there. They picked me up, and the host son could speak a little bit of English, along with one of the host cousins. I ended up creating such a wonderful bond with them through love, communicating almost through charades. They welcomed me into their home, and we had a great time."

"We played different pieces from Glen Miller. I played a solo on a song called 'Choose Joy.' ...We played this very cool piece called 'Sea Rock City.' It was very beautiful....[My host family] said that they really enjoyed one of our pieces, which was a Disney compilation of songs, and that really connected with them, the different various Disney melodies."

Although he is not in the full IB program, Gunn is taking many IB classes. "I have definitely learned a lot and grown a lot, and I have experimented with a lot of different fields," he said. His IB classes include English, Spanish, Biology, Psychology and Mathematics.

One of Gunn's favorite areas of study is electrical engineering which he says "is kind of a funky mix with art and engineering. But I enjoy a lot of different fields. Electrical engineering, though, is something I have worked on at the Innovation Center for about three years now. I really enjoy working with electronics and making little printed circuit boards and doing all that fun stuff."

Gunn has been accepted into the Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder where he will start next year.

Gunn is also an artist. In eighth grade, one of Gunn's teachers at the Innovation Center suggested a program for students to create comics for pay. "I wasn't much of an artist at the time," Gunn said. But he wanted to learn, and he took various art classes at NHS, working mostly with graphite. He started taking drawing classes to help with his comic art abilities. He feels one of his best works is a self-portrait with his saxophone.

Gunn listens to a wide variety of music. Favorite performers include indie musician and guitarist Mac DeMarco. "Because it's all him performing," he explained. "That has really helped me attempt to be a multi-musician as well."

He also enjoys listening to Jack Stauber, who makes "bedroom pop." He said, "That has been an inspiration for me too, because I have tried making my own alternative musical projects. I enjoy using the saxophone and so many other different instruments to experiment."

Gunn has released his music on social media channels, including Spotify and Apple Music, under the name "Proxy Machine." Although he has not released a full album yet, he has found that some of his own independent music projects have really given him a lot of joy during the school year.

"Because there are so many different stressors, sitting down making music on my own has really been influential to me. I use some synthesized instruments with various synthesizers, and that's where I have begun to learn a little bit of piano and guitar. My dad used to play guitar as well. So, I have stepped into his shoes and begun to learn a little bit of that as well."

Gunn uses a variety of tools to mix and record the music, including Ableton, a digital audio workstation. To hear his music on Instagram, follow him at @ben._.gunn.