About the Event

“Gen-X’s preeminent pop piano player” (Pop Matters), Ben Folds is a gifted musician, singer-songwriter, and composer, known for comedic and bittersweet tunes that unfold like four-minute short stories. The Guardian describes him as “a classically trained frontman who loves to delight a crowd with a killer melody.” His chamber pop performances are rife with engaging anecdotes and dexterous improvisation. 

This Scottsdale performance is part of Folds’s popular Paper Airplane Request Tour, where fans will be invited to launch their song requests to the stage via paper airplanes. 

The Emmy®-nominated singer-songwriter-composer has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborations with everyone from Regina Spektor and yMusic to Nick Hornby and William Shatner. His hits include “Brick,” “The Luckiest,” “Army,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “Battle of Who Could Care Less.” For the past three decades, he’s toured as a pop artist while also performing with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras. 

A New York Times best-selling author and podcast host, Folds composes for film, television, and theatre; guest stars in films and television shows; and serves as the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. 

A longtime advocate for arts and music education funding, Folds launched a music education charitable initiative in his native state of North Carolina called Keys for Kids. It provides funds and keyboards to existing nonprofits that provide free or affordable music lessons to interested school-age children. On the national level, he’s active as a member of Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund. 

$1 of every ticket will be donated to Ben Folds’s nonprofit Keys for Kids. 

Lindsey Kraft 

Lindsey Kraft is a multifaceted artist: actress, singer, and composer. You may recognize her from various television roles, including Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, HBO’s Getting On, and, most recently, Netflix’s Obliterated. As the opening act for Ben Folds, she’ll be performing her unique brand of theatrical pop songs, including songs from her musical love, me, a one-woman show workshopped recently in Los Angeles for a live album produced by Linda Perry. Kraft characterizes her songs as deeply personal, funny, and sad—her sound inspired by Carly Simon, Carole King, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Randy Newman, and Broadway (but, like, only the good shows). 

During an opening performance for Folds at the Kennedy Center in 2023, she received a glowing review by DC Music Review, which wrote that the audience “was treated and transfixed by the performance of Lindsey Kraft. Within the first few moments of her piece, concertgoers realized how perfect the pairing was. A burgeoning newcomer to musical performances, Kraft, in addition to her brilliant piano playing and songs, masterfully interacted with and entertained the audience with her witty and sincere songs.”