Music has helped shape this Long Beach resident's life

Music has always been a major part of Long Beach’s arts scene. For years there have been concerts on the beach, at restaurants and in Kennedy Plaza.

Benjamin Metzger has long been central to that scene. Metzger, who also goes by the stage name Benoir, is the musical director of Arts in the Plaza, and gives lessons in a music room in his first apartment that he calls Studio Noir. His life revolves around music, and he has shared his passion at every opportunity.

“I’ve been playing music my whole life,” Metzger said. “I love music so much. My family listened to a lot of great music when I was growing up on vinyl, and even eight-track.”

Metzger, 49, was born in Patchogue. When he was 3, his father, William, died, leaving him with his mother, Bernice, and his sister, Carolyn, who’s 11 years older. He said it was tough on his mother to raise the family herself, but his sister acted as his “second mother” growing up.

The family eventually moved to Coram, and ultimately ended up in Farmingville. He attended school in Sachem, where he first dabbled with instruments, even if it wasn’t the way he initially wanted.

“I started playing the baritone horn in fourth grade,” he recalled. “I remember trying to pick out drums, because everybody wants drums. My third choice was baritone, but because I (wrote) it down, and they needed more, they gave me that. I was lugging around this big, huge instrument. It’s probably when my back problems started.”

Metzger played the horn for a few years, until eighth grade, when he grew tired of playing background music. So he asked his music teachers if he could switch to alto saxophone. He began taking private lessons, and his teacher suggested that he go to an international art jazz program that Stony Brook University was hosting. He went, and was by far the youngest person there.

He learned how to play the sax so well that he and some other young musicians were recruited to play live at a bar called South Winds in Patchogue. He even improvised a solo in front of the crowd. He was 13.

When he got to Sachem High School, Metzger joined an after-school rock program, and added the guitar to his repertoire.

After high school, he applied to the Berklee College of Music, and was accepted, but it was too expensive. So he ended up attending the University of Miami, which offered him a scholarship. He wanted to study sound engineering — which he thought he put on his college application — but was told when he arrived that he would be studying music business. He was an 18-year-old in a new state with the wrong major.

But he found something that caught his attention — Miami’s music performance program. He auditioned three times before being accepted. He didn’t get in until the second semester of his sophomore year, so he took courses worth 21 credits a semester to catch up.

During his final year in college, in 1995, Metzger and a friend created a show called Film Arts Revolution, improvising off movie soundtracks and mixing the music with images or experimental art. They played at clubs around Miami and, after graduating, they brought the show to a Manhattan club, Wetlands Preserve.

“Eventually, my money ran out,” Metzger said. “I was doing the experimental art, and I was paying the band members, and I was learning that you don’t make a lot of money at these clubs in New York. So I had to take a break from the experimental film shows and just learn how to be a musician in New York and how to make money.”

He moved to Queens, and worked at the Union Square Virgin Megastore and the HMV Music record store as his day jobs. He performed at iconic locations including the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, Joe’s Pub, and even Lincoln Center, in a special show celebrating the anniversary of India’s independence from England. He also played with a band called Pharoah’s Daughter, which toured around the country and played in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in 2001.

Metzger moved into an apartment on Kentucky Street, in Long Beach’s West End, in 2007. That became the original location for Studio Noir, before he opened a second one, Studio Noir East, on Magnolia Avenue. He offers one-on-one lessons, and does programs with local camps and groups, including the Catalina Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, the Friedberg JCC in Oceanside, and Rolling River Day Camp in East Rockaway.

He met Johanna Mathieson, the executive director of Long Beach’s Artists in Partnership, in 2009. They didn’t have a budget at the time, so he played for free, just for the experience. He eventually got involved heavily with Arts in the Plaza, and is now the entertainment director, booking musicians to play at each event. He’s set up countless performances, and has more on the way.

This week there will be an installment of Friday Nights in the Plaza. The local band Half Step is scheduled to play outside City Hall on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. Attendees will be able to bring chairs, relax and listen to live music on a summer night to end the week.

Then, guitarist Bakithi Kumalo will be coming to the city in August for a number of shows. He’ll perform in a concert in Kennedy Plaza on Aug. 11 and a show at the Cabana the following day, and he will lead a drum circle for families on Aug. 13 — a community performance that’s not too common in Long Beach.

For “Jam Along with Bakithi,” families will be encouraged to bring drums, shakers and anything else that’s uniquely percussive, and play with Kumalo during an all-day art event at West Elementary School.

In the meantime, Metzger said, “I’m proud and happy to be going to the Montreal Jazz Festival just to listen and have fun for my birthday next week. It’s my gift to myself. Then, as soon as I get back, it’s going to be like my birthday party in the plaza on July 8. I’m turning 50, and I’ve been playing music since I was 15. So, yeah, I’m having a blast.”