Benjamin Wolff Email and Phone Number

Cellist, speaker, and writer. For thirty years, I’ve been pursuing these occupations in various ways—on concert stages, in universities and art museums, at corporate retreats and conferences—even at NASA 🚀 I’ve worked in non-profits (co-founder of the Foothills Music Festival), academia (Hofstra University professor), corporate media (Forbes contributor), volunteer positions (National Speakers Association), and as a New York City freelance musician.A child of professional artists (graphic designer and natural science illustrator), I grew up surrounded by the strange and wondrous tools of their crafts—drafting tables, razor blades, cans of rubber cement and solvent; pencils and paint; plants, lichens, bird nests, and small animal skulls. A peculiar kaleidoscope of textures, shapes, and scents—but, to me, it was the most normal thing in the world.As a young musician, I studied the recorder in school like so many others—but then my uncle Jack, a passionate amateur cellist, inspired me to change instruments. That’s how the cello became my musical voice.Music, art, history, and science—I’ve always been drawn to places and times where unusual ideas come together and reveal something new. I think the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein got it exactly right when he said, “The best way to know something is in the context of another discipline.”Since 2017 I’ve been writing a column about the value of those interdisciplinary opportunities for Forbes, asking the question: “What can business leaders learn from the arts?” The answers are eye-opening, often unexpected, and always delightful.What’s ahead? A book is in the works, I continue to be a passionate advocate for the arts in business and society, and at least once a year, you can find me whipping up a batch of homemade pancakes on a wilderness canoe trip in the Adirondacks.