Justin Benavidez

Hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “a true virtuoso of his instrument”, Justin Benavidez is the Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the Eastman School of Music. He previously held a tenured faculty position at Florida State University. In the summer, he teaches and performs at the Round Top Summer Music Festival in Round Top, Texas and at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California.

Benavidez has performed across North America, Europe, and Japan. He has been featured numerous times on Performance Today. His debut solo album Emblems won Silver Medals in the Classical Album and Solo Instrumentalist categories of the 2018 Global Music Awards. The International Tuba Euphonium Association Journal described it as “an impressive and highly entertaining record” on which Benavidez “shreds with enthusiasm, exuberance, and precision”. His second album Storyteller won Silver Medals in the Classical Album and Solo Instrumentalist categories of the 2022 Global Music Awards and was named a finalist for the 2023 ITEA Roger Bobo Award for Excellence in Recording. Fanfare Magazine described the album as “splendidly eloquent […] a masterclass in expressiveness” with a sound that is “gloriously warm and comforting”.

As an orchestral musician, Benavidez has performed as tubist with the symphony orchestras of Charleston, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Rochester, Santa Fe, Sarasota, Tallahassee, and Utah.

Benavidez is a Buffet Crampon/Melton Meinl Weston performing artist and Denis Wick performing artist.