Alumnus performs for Pope Francis in New York

Ben Pila never dreamed that he might one day play classical guitar for the Pope — but that is exactly what he will be doing. Pope Francis’ first visit to the U.S. will have him in New York on Friday to meet the families of several 9/11 victims, and Pila, a Thornton alumnus, will be there, playing what he described as “ambient music.”

“It’s super humbling, and I’m very honored to be there,” Pila, who earned his doctorate in musicial arts in 2011 said. “I think it’ll be a very spiritual event. I’m not a very religious person, but I feel like being at something like that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and has the potential to be life-changing.”

Most classical musicians remember learning musical scales and cutting their teeth on “Greensleeves” and “Für Elise.” Pila, however, recalls his guitar education starting a bit differently.

“I started playing guitar when I was 12 because I was obsessed with Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne,” Pila said.

At the time, he said he never imagined that he’d end up playing classical guitar. Even at his performing arts high school, Pila said he tried to avoid the genre.

Pila’s invitation to play at the National September 11 Memorial comes after spending six years — from 2007 to 2013 — playing at the annual 9/11 memorial ceremony, an opportunity he first got when he was still a graduate student at Juilliard. For Pila, these performances have been the most impactful in his long career, mainly because of the context in which he’s playing.

“What impacted me the most was … being able to look out and see all of these people who are holding up pictures of their lost loved ones,” Pila said. “By playing music that is beautiful and peaceful, I like to think that I brought a little bit of comfort to them during that terrible day, when they have to think about what happened so many years ago.”

Throughout Pila’s years playing at the annual memorial ceremony, he has brushed shoulders with everyone from politicians to fellow musicians. He recalls listening to psalms read by presidents Barack Obama and George Bush, encountering Michael Bloomberg in the musicians’ tent and having a three-minute conversation with Yo-Yo Ma about how musicians can maintain strong fingernails. These experiences, far from creating a sense of self-importance, have only served to accentuate Pila’s down-to-earth attitude — he calls playing for the Pope a “gig” and jokes about how his guitar instructor at USC named his book after a bodybuilding film.

“[Professor] Scott Tennant wrote the technique book for classical guitarists,” Pila said. “It was called ‘Pumping Nylon,’ which is kind of a humorous title because it’s like weight lifting but for guitar.”

Tennant, who taught many of Pila’s guitar classes as well as his one-on-one lessons, describes Pila in much of the same way, as a student motivated by a desire to share his music with others rather than a desire to boast about his success.

“A moment that stood out to me was when he kind of nonchalantly told me that he would be playing for the 9/11 ceremony in New York,” Tennant recalled. “When he said, ‘By the way, I’m going to be playing with Yo-Yo Ma’ — that was a very important moment.”

Pila came to USC to earn his D.M.A. after receiving his Master of Music degree, specializing in guitar performance, from Juilliard. Before that, he studied guitar as an undergraduate at Florida State University. At USC, Pila encountered professors who he felt helped shape his career today.

“The teachers here have careers of their own that are pretty astounding,” Pila said. “Being able to learn from people that really have a hands-on outlook of the music industry, people that actually are performing artists, who have Grammys, who go out and tour the world […] is very beneficial to building a career.”

Pila’s career has certainly been prolific. He is the only classical guitarist ever to be named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and his music has been featured on The Today Show on NBC as well as NPR’s From the Top. He has won numerous prizes and today teaches guitar at Polk State College in Tampa, Florida. But, despite his litany of successes, Pila’s focus for the future isn’t necessarily to achieve fame and excellence.

“I just want to have a steady teaching gig, and I would like to perform as many concerts as possible,” Pila said before mentioning he will be performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in April. For him, the performance isn’t about the prestige of the location or the audience. Instead, it’s all about the music because despite his long career playing classical guitar, he can still clearly remember being a 12-year-old kid obsessed with hard rock.

“When I’m in really good guitar shape, there’s nothing better than playing a really good classical guitar repertoire,” Pila said. “But [playing pop songs] brings me full circle, back to my roots of playing Metallica and Ozzy.”

Indeed, his version of Metallica’s “The Unforgiven” is up on his website, right next to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which he’ll be playing for Pope Francis. It’s a combination that only Pila could pull off — and, whether he’s playing for rock or religion, one that he makes uniquely his own.