Marissa Benedict was 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 in Trumpet Performance (June 1984), studying with Boyde Hood.
Marissa is Assistant Professor of Trumpet at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is a resident of Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Before coming to Minnesota, she was on faculty at California State University, San Bernardino; Glendale Community College; and The Colburn School of Performing Arts.
While in Los Angeles, Marissa was a very successful freelance trumpet player for 34 years. She is principal trumpet for The Pasadena Symphony/Pasadena Pops, second trumpet for Long Beach Symphony/Pops, principal trumpet in Orchestra Santa Monica and second trumpet in the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She plays regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and 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, Marissa can be heard on nearly 160 motion picture recordings, including Incredibles II; Spider-Man Far from Home; Coco; Moana; Rogue One; and Spider-Man, Homecoming.
Marissa is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
