Ben Folds Surprise Releases New Live Album
(BHM) Ben Folds is celebrating Independence Day with today's release of Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra, a brand-new album recorded in concert at the sold-out Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on October 25 and 26, 2024.
The album is available now at all DSPs and streaming services; multiple physical products are available, including CDs, signed CDs, standard black vinyl, signed standard black vinyl, opaque white vinyl, signed opaque white vinyl, signed metallic gold vinyl, and limited-edition Coke Bottle green vinyl.
Folds will officially announce Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra this morning with a special in-store launch event at Washington, DC's Byrdland Records (1264 5th Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002) set for 11:00 am-1:00 pm (ET), marking his first appearance in the nation's capital since publicly announcing his resignation earlier this year. In addition to meeting fans and signing copies of the new album, the event will see Folds conduct a livestream Q&A session - LIVE STREAMhere. Folds will also sit down with TalkShopLive for a conversation about the new album on July 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Fans can purchase the album as an exclusive signed CD from TalkShopLive. Watch here.
Folds - who yesterday headlined a special Pops On Independence concert in Philadelphia, PA at Independence National Historical Park alongside The Philly Pops - will mark the arrival of Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra with a wide-ranging US tour schedule that will see him performing solo dates and symphony concerts alongside some of the country's leading orchestras.
Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra sees Folds performing classic hits and new music from his genre-bending body of work thus far, joined by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Principal Pops Conductor of the NSO Steven Reineke along with very special guest artists Regina Spektor and Tall Heights; the makeshift choir includes Doug Peck, Nicholas Kassoy and Marc Silvey. Live recording producers include David Boucher, Joe Costa, Justin Ellis, and Ben Folds. Orchestrators include Jherek Bischoff, Alex Turley, Eric Allen, and Rob Moose. The recordings were mixed by Boucher and mastered by Kim Rosen.
Having spent eight years carefully nurturing orchestral innovation and programming with actual purpose as the National Symphony Orchestra's first-ever Artistic Advisor, Ben Folds officially offered his resignation at 1:59 pm Eastern on February 12, 2025 - exactly one minute after President Trump's administrative regime change of the Kennedy Center officially took hold.
"I had my statement up by 2:01," Folds says in an exclusive interview with Kyle Meredith, nationally syndicated radio host at WFPK FM, Louisville. "The takeover was at 2:00. I wanted no part of what was coming."
Folds knew Trump's taking over the traditionally bipartisan Kennedy Center wasn't simply a reshuffling of jobs or a new marketing campaign. It was a betrayal of mission, a hostile remodeling of one of America's most vital cultural institutions and artistic sanctuaries. More than simply a concert hall, the Kennedy Center has always been an essential engine for civic and artistic connection. As NSO Artistic Advisor, Folds gave young orchestrators a platform while helping to pilot programs like Declassified, which introduced modern songwriters to orchestral arrangements.
"We weren't using the orchestra as props," Folds says. "We were challenging them to bring new music to life, while giving the orchestra a one-size-fits-all role. Our experimentation was a beacon for other orchestras throughout the private sector."
Now, with Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra, Folds leaves behind a document of his experience at the Kennedy Center - part protest, part celebration, entirely earnest in its ambition. The album features a lush reimagining of old favorites like "Still Fighting It," which, with its newly restored orchestral intro, manages to sound both bigger and more intimate than ever - an anthem turned lullaby, then turned back again.
"It works because it's not pretending to be something else," Folds says. "It's using the orchestra as it should be used. To elevate, not decorate."
Taken together, the album plays like a requiem for a moment and a love letter to everything that moment made possible. There's humor, heartbreak, and conviction in every arrangement, from "Kristine from the Seventh Grade," a tender gut-punch about misinformation and fractured friendships, to "Fragile," which borrows its arrangement from Mozart but still sounds utterly modern. Having previously presented Regina Spektor's premiere orchestral performance, Folds invited his old friend to return to the Kennedy Center stage to perform their popular duet, "You Don't Know Me." Among the many highlights, the soaring, ambitious "Capable of Anything" stands out for its Jherek Bischoff-orchestrated bridge and a message Folds describes as a warning shot.
"We're all capable of terrible things," Folds says. "But we're also capable of doing better. That's the choice."
Part protest, part celebration, entirely earnest in its ambition, Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra lands with the clarity of a final bow before the curtain drops. Except it's not the end - it's a rally cry.
"This album suddenly now feels much bigger," Ben Folds says. "I knew we were making something special with the NSO. I didn't know it'd be a time capsule of the last moment before it all got torn down.
"I still believe there's more good than not," he adds. "But you must work for it. You have to say something. Especially now."
Stream or purchase the new live album here
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