BOYCHIK

BIOGRAPHY

Theatricality is all around us. The way we move through space and time, adorn our bodies, and inflect our words is theater. Boychik was birthed from a desire to explore that theatricality through hyper-vulnerable song writing. Composer/vocalist Ben Levi Ross spent much of their childhood and young adult life in and around the world of theater, training as an actor, ballet dancer, pianist, and singer.

Ben studied theater at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama for 1 year before exiting to join the Broadway company of the hit musical “Dear Evan Hansen”. They toured the country to rave reviews for a year as the titular role from 2018-2019. The LA Times called their performance “sensational”, with a “voice that has a radiant strength and fills the theater with its luminosity.” They go on to mention that “the heart and soul of the show is Ross, who matures the hard way before our very eyes. This extraordinary lead performance is heroic in the truth it exposes about our error-strewn paths from youthful alienation toward that distant mountain of self-acceptance.”

The Washington Post said that Ross has a “rewardingly supple voice” and has “built a character with whom we come to empathize deeply.” Ben went on to star in the Kennedy Center’s production of “Next to Normal” in 2020, as well as make their film debut in Netflix’s “Tick, Tick… Boom!” in 2021. Ben's multi-disciplinary theatrical origins are the soul of Boychik and appear at the forefront of their music.

At age 23, Boychik collaborated with two production teams: Minneapolis musicians Jake Luppen and Nathan Stocker of Hippo Campus and acclaimed indie musician Brad Oberhofer to record a 9-track record based sonically in their voice and piano, but reaching into a plethora of styles and influences– from Phillip Glass to Fiona Apple, from Liz Phair to Rufus Wainwright. Dramatic narratives drive each piece, and each seems to be its own short play with a defined beginning, middle, and end. Boychik presents you a queer body and mind, confident yet aching—with bruises all around, and a need to be seen and heard.