Ben Folds is playing dates with orchestras, and he’s scheduling performances that will feature him alone onstage with a piano. Those solo dates—like the one scheduled Aug. 7 at the Guild Theatre—showcase just one of the many dimensions of Folds’ artistry.
Ben Folds came to prominence as the pianist, singer and songwriter who introduced the “punk rock for sissies” (his self-effacing term) of Ben Folds Five to alt-rock audiences in the 1990s and beyond. Hits like “The Battle of Who Could Care Less,” “Song for the Dumped,” “Army” and the heart-rending real-life balladry of “Brick” earned his guitar-less band a legion of fans in an era dominated by grunge.
Folds’ subsequent work as a solo artist has elevated his status even further; he has since expanded into scoring for film and television, producing for (and collaborating with) other artists, writing an autobiography, doing a bit of acting, and mounting tours that emphasize an interactive quality.
That lengthy list of resourceful pursuits is seemingly not enough for the creatively peripatetic native of Winston-Salem, N.C. In 2019 Folds became artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (He resigned in protest when Donald Trump’s proxies seized control of the Kennedy Center.) His most recent album, Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra, was released on July 4.
Folds’ current run of tour dates features that mix of solo and orchestral performances, as well as a New York City appearance in connection with a TV special for which he wrote and recorded the music.
With its varying flavors of engagements, Folds’ schedule could disorient even the hardiest touring artist. He laughs at the suggestion. “It was more confusing when I was playing solo shows, orchestra shows, and two separate band versions on tours, and none of them were advertised what [they] were going to be,” he says. “I got through that, so this seems far less schizo.”
No matter what kind of performance he undertakes, Folds believes there’s a foundational value at work. “What I always have to tap into is the story of the song,” he explains. “If you tell me I can only use four notes on the piano, I’ve still got to get the point across. And I think that the melodies and stories are solid; for the most part, they can do that.”
Playful interactivity is often part and parcel of a Ben Folds performance. On the concert documented on 2013’s Ben Folds Live, he leads the audience in vocalizations of the spirited horn sections on “Army.” On his 2017 tour, Folds encouraged concertgoers to write song requests on paper, fold them into airplanes and throw them toward the stage.
Even Folds’ set list is subject to in-the-moment creative inspiration. “I have a set list sitting in front of me that’s a ‘shape,’” he says. “Because I think the shape feels right to me.” Folds cites a show in Groton, Mass., the night before our conversation. “Last night I retained the shape, [but] almost none of the songs were the same set list.”
Stylistic versatility is a through-line that connects all the pieces of Ben Folds’ body of work. His wide-screen approach to his art goes a long way toward explaining why Folds is carrying on a musical tradition that began nearly a year before he was born.
With the December 1965 broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas, San Francisco–based jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi went nearly overnight from a moderately successful (if critically acclaimed) career as a recording artist to a pop sensation. A generation of kids—and more than a few adults—grew up hearing and loving Guaraldi’s evocative work for that and subsequent Peanuts specials; few even realized they were listening to jazz.
Folds followed on from Guaraldi in 2022 when he composed the music for Apple TV+’s It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown. Now in 2025, Folds returns to the piano for Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. “I don’t think there’s a piano player around who was a kid when that music came out who doesn’t associate part of the soul of the piano with Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi,” he says.
Folds says Guaraldi’s melancholy piano and cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s worldview created a “quiet zone” for kids of the era. And that was important in a time when the Vietnam War and the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X made the world a very loud place. “You needed quiet, and you needed reflection,” he says.
And with the music of Ben Folds, listeners get all that and an opportunity to rock out.
Ben Folds and a Piano plays at 8pm on Aug 7 at the Guild Theatre, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. Tickets: $110+. guildtheatre.com
