Greg Holden / Ben Thornewill Live from the Red Room

Tune in to birnCORE on Thursday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. for a live broadcast of the performance by singer-songwriter Greg Holden and Ben Thornewill at the Red Room at Cafe 939.

Greg Holden is a United Kingdom native who moved to New York City in an attempt to live out his dream of being a full time songwriter and touring artist. Since then he’s traveled the world performing for audiences between 1,000 and 15,000 people, and written songs for multiple artists including writing the debut single “Home” for American Idol winner Phillip Phillips, which sold more than 5 million copies. His music has also been featured on notable television shows including Sons of Anarchy, Private Practice, and One Tree Hill.

In addition to receiving praise from industry staples such as Cher, Tom Hanks, Josh Groban, Sara Bareilles, Michael Bublé, Zane Lowe, Time magazine, NPR, and more, Holden has racked up critical acclaim in the press, with BuzzFeed hailing his “soaring, purpose-filled songs that carry real emotional weight,” Paste lauding his “clear vocals” and “expressive lyrics,” and Nylon applauding his unique ability to “actually touch the lives of another person with raw, emotional lyrical poetry.”

In 2016, he moved to Los Angeles to nurture his songwriting and production career, and has been recording his own records since, creating a number of albums including I Don’t Believe You, Chase The Sun, and his most recent release World War Me. Additionally, Holden has not taken his success in the music industry for granted and at times has worked to prioritize philanthropy and establish his profile as a socially conscious artist. Greg Holden is an artist to be watching this year, with an expected EP to be released later this year.

Ben Thornewill is a pianist, composer and songwriter who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and began studying classical piano at the age of six and writing music at age twelve. Receiving a B.A. in Music from The George Washington University with an emphasis in classical composition and jazz performance, he still wanted to fuse his passion for pop music; in doing so, He formed the piano pop trio Jukebox the Ghost. JTG released four studio albums, a live album, and has performed over a thousand shows including music festivals like Bonaroo, Lollapalooza, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman’s late night TV shows.

His latest project is an album comprised of a collection of classical piano improvisations recorded over the course of two nights at Studio G in Brooklyn. Thornewill found a way to use his love of improve and classical music to make a record that was also listenable and entertaining.The result is part film score, part whimsy, part Frederic Chopin and part Erik Satie. All the songs are structurally unedited and completely unpremeditated.  (With the one notable exception of “Stranger Things” which was improvised while watching part of an episode with the sound off in an attempt to re-score it).

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