Ben Mink

Ben Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer.

Born of Polish parents, Mink was raised in Toronto Ontario. He got his start performing with the rock/country group Mary-Lou Horner, which became the house band at "The Rockpile" bar and nightclub. They opened for Led Zeppelin and Muddy Waters, along with being a backup band for Chuck Berry.

He plays several string instruments, including the guitar, violin and the mandolin, and is an award-winning music producer.

Ben is best known as a long-time collaborator with Canadian singer k.d. lang, whom he met at Expo '85 while doing a gig with CANO. Mink has performed on, along with co-writing and producing several of her albums, which often combine voice with string arrangements. Mink subsequently performed as violinist, guitarist, and mandolinist with lang's band, the Reclines. A performance was recorded as part of the MTV Unplugged series at the Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, December 16, 1992 (aired in 1993).

Before that, Mink was a member of the bands Stringband, FM, and The Blazing Zulus.

Additionally, Mink was invited to play electric violin on the Rush song "Losing It" from the band's 1982 album Signals and contributing strings to the song "Faithless" from the 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. He also performed guitar parts on My Favorite Headache (2000), a solo project of Rush's lead singer Geddy Lee.

Mink has also produced and/or performed on recordings by numerous other artists, a diverse group which includes the Barenaked Ladies, Meryn Cadell, Marie-Lynn Hammond, Dan Hill, Mendelson Joe, Prairie Oyster, Raffi (musician), Jane Siberry, Sylvia Tyson, Valdy, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, Willie P. Bennett, Susan Aglukark, and Ann Wilson of Heart.

Ben Mink was also responsible for the movie soundtrack to Fifty Dead Men Walking.which has since received numerous awards and nominations including a 2010 Genie Award nomination for Best Achievement in Music – Original Score, and a 2009 Leo Award for Best Musical Score for a Feature Length Drama. The television soundtracks for Terminal City. and Alice (TV miniseries)., both garnered Leo Awards. Confessions of an Innocent Man, a shocking, heart-wrenching story about British-Canadian engineer William Sampson (author), won a 2007 Gemini Award for Best Biography Documentary Program.

He co-produced Red Velvet Car with Ann and Nancy Wilson, the newest album by Heart released in the fall of 2010 and appears onstage in the band's concert video Night At Sky Church. Mink was back at the helm as producer of Heart's upcoming album 'Fanatic'.

Mink co-produced and performed on Feist's Grammy nominated hit single "1-2-3-4", playing strings and guitars.

Ben has lectured on such topics as “The Music Business vs. the Creative Process,” at the University of British Columbia, University of Western Washington and Simon Fraser University. He has also worked with students as an associate of UBC’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (robotics) and is an associate member of the Institute for Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems. In 2006 Ben delivered the introductory speech for k.d. lang’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award induction at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He has also contributed to the Library and Archives Canada

Mink is a member of the Black Sea Station, a North American klezmer supergroup. Their debut recording, Transylvania Avenue, is produced by Mink, and was released on Rounder Records in the Fall of 2010 as a digital download. He's also produced other klezmer musical acts in the past such as Finjan, The Klezmatics and Chava Alberstein.

Ben Mink has one solo recording - the hard to find 1980 release, "Foreign Exchange", on Passport Records.