John Bennum

Beginning with his earliest gigs in high school, Reno-Tahoe area native and multi-instrumentalist John Bennum has remained in demand for his versatility as a freelance musician, composer/arranger, recording engineer, and music instructor. 

A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno's Applied Jazz program, John previously attended Northwestern University, where he studied classical performance with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He has been a member of the Reno Jazz Orchestra's trombone section since 2016, has performed, toured, and recorded with groups across a wide variety of styles, and has shared the stage with many nationally recognized artists. 

As Executive Director of the Reno Jazz Orchestra from 2019–2022, John successfully continued that nonprofit arts organization's youth music education initiatives and community engagement in the face of a global pandemic. He has since stepped aside to focus on his interests in sound design and computer science, while maintaining a full-time schedule of teaching and performing. 

John has enjoyed making noise with anything he can get his hands on from an early age, and his specialties include trombone, guitar, drums, bass, piano/keyboard, ukulele, music theory/composition, and home audio recording.