Presented in partnership with Ouray County Performing Arts Guild.

The experimental ensemble piece Death of The Pugilist , based on contemporary American novelist Daniel Mason’s short story, embodies everything exceptional about a BenFeng Production: free-spirited, expressive, and transformative. Set on the quayside docks amid the squalor of working-class life in 1820’s England, the narrative follows a young man as he comes of age in a rough-and-tumble profession, with music weaving the rich layers of emotional tapestry and humanity. Drawing from the musical elements of contrapuntal Bach, minimalistic Philip Glass, blues and Irish folk music, the production creates an experience of story and music that is deeply moving and truly unique. The production starts with an opening set featuring all five musicians, followed by a 55-minute compilation of story and music, performed without intermission. The ensemble includes a narrator and four other musicians, each a wonderfully eclectic individual steeped in a wide array of musical traditions. Death of the Pugilist was premiered in the summer of 2008 at Gros Morne Summer Music in Newfoundland, broadcast live by CBC Radio 2. The author Daniel Mason called the piece ” absolutely beautiful and so stunningly paced with the story. ” The production made US premier with Sounds of Lyons Music Festival in 2009, and subsequently re-envisioned with the current ensemble in 2021 as part of the inaugural Garden Music Series in Carbondale, Colorado.