Marissa Benedict

Born in San Francisco, CA and raised in Marin County where she started playing piano at age 7, violin at age 9 and trumpet at age 10 (studying with Joe Alessi, Sr). She continued playing all three instruments until graduating from High School and moving to Los Angeles to attend USC, where she earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Trumpet Performance (June 1984), studying with Boyde Hood. Marissa recently accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Trumpet at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is now a resident of Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Before coming here Marissa was on faculty at California State University, San Bernardino, Glendale Community College and The Colburn School of Performing Arts.

Before leaving for Minnesota she was a freelance trumpet player in Los Angeles for 34 years. She currently is still principal trumpet for The Pasadena Symphony/Pasadena Pops, 2nd trumpet for Long Beach Symphony/Pops, principal trumpet for Orchestra Santa Monica. She plays regularly with, Los Angeles Philharmonic, including their last three tours, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Master Chorale, other Los Angeles area orchestras. She is one of the founding members of The Modern Brass Quintet who perform throughout the Los Angeles area.

A very active and in demand studio player, she can be heard on nearly 160 motion picture recordings, including most recently, songs from Frozen II, Incredibles II, Spider-Man Far from Home, Coco, Moana, Rogue One, and Spider-Man, Homecoming and recently became a Yamaha Performing Artist.