Nationally acclaimed composer, pianist, writer, and storyteller Ben Cosgrove returns to the region on Thursday, Nov. 19, for a solo piano concert at the Dublin Community Church.
The 7 p.m. concert is co-sponsored by the Monadnock Folklore Society and the Dublin Community Center.
Based in Bath, Maine, but spending much of the year on the road, Cosgrove grew up in Methuen, Mass., and spent summers at his family’s camp in Rindge. He visits the region to see family in Fitchburg, Mass., and Keene and play local events. He says he has hiked Monadnock countless times, and feels the mountain has always attracted creative people.
“I’ve been around this region my whole life. My great-grandparents bought a camp in Rindge in the early 20th century, and I spent every summer of my whole childhood up here, running around with my cousins,” he said. “I’ve always bonded more to this region than anywhere else.”
Cosgrove, who tours nationally and has six original albums, is known for composing music inspired by landscapes and the natural environment. He has composed music for clients ranging from Glacier, Grand Teton, and Katmai National Parks to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Each album is inspired by the landscape: “The Trouble With Wilderness,” released in 2021, reflects on the balance between preserving and accessing wilderness, while “Salt,” from 2017, focuses on the changing environment of estuaries. “Field Studies,” from 2017, includes songs inspired by the American West.
Cosgrove is a familiar face on local stages. In April, he was a featured performer at the Peterborough Town House for the historic Chickering piano restoration celebration, a concert honoring the late folk legend Bob McQuillen. That appearance led Volkert Volkersz, former director of the Dublin Community Center, and Lisa Sieverts of the Monadnock Folklore Society to recruit Cosgrove back for the upcoming solo program.
In 2022, Cosgrove collaborated with Hancock author Howard Mansfield to create “A Journey to the White Mountains in Words and Music,” combining Mansfield’s writing with Cosgrove’s music. A film documenting the performances won a New England Emmy Award in the Historical/Cultural Longform film category.
Cosgrove is currently completing a year-long artist residency at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, Conn., which led him to spend much of the past year traveling the length of the Connecticut River.
“I’m planning to write four songs about different moments along the river which will show contrasts, for the four different states, and four different seasons,” Cosgrove said. “One song will kind of show what the headwaters of the river are like in winter, in New Hampshire; one will be about the Vermont side, in the spring; then the Massachusetts river valley, in summer, when all the fields are green; and the estuary, down in Connecticut, in the fall.”
Cosgrove’s “New Music for the Connecticut River” will premiere on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Connecticut River Museum. For one event during his residency, Cosgrove performed on the museum’s research ship.
“I’ve played on a few boats. It’s a perk of writing about water a lot. There’s a quote by Jim Harrison that says, ‘How the water goes is how the land is shaped;’ it turns out that water is a really important part of land,” Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove says that along his path to becoming a professional musician, he “sort of got the best of both worlds,” with formal, high-level training but also playing with everyone from classical musicians to “guys with banjos on the street.”
“I’ve learned to operate in both types of worlds, and it’s also helped me create the music I write in my own way,” he said. “A lot of my favorite things, when I’m writing, come from other types of music. I don’t listen to a lot of piano music. I’ll hear a saxophone or a mandolin and think, how can I get piano to do that?”
In Dublin, Cosgrove will play a selection of songs from his six albums, interspersed with stories about the places he has been.
“My music has no words with it, so telling stories about the places that have inspired my music, telling a few jokes, is a huge part of what I do,” Cosgrove said. “It’s giving people some kind of clue as to what they might try to picture when I’m playing.”
Cosgrove said the Monadnock region is a favorite place to return to.
“I think of the Monadnock region as a still place in a turning world. It’s been the same since I was born, and it will be the same long after I’m gone, and that’s kind of a great comfort.”
Tickets and details are available through the Monadnock Folklore Society.