Bennett Lopez teaches oboe and english horn in Sacramento, CA and online. An active advocate for music in the public schools, Bennett has given clinics, sectionals, and taught ensemble rehearsals with various groups at local elementary, middle, and high schools. His strengths include teaching: memory development, cognitive development, creative expression, healthier living and student-centered learning. He enjoys teaching students at all levels. Bennett has experience teaching and playing with honor groups and extracurricular organizations including youth orchestras and All-State ensembles. Connecting with his audiences, Mr. Lopez is proud of his community engagement efforts, offering chamber music concerts to a wide variety of listeners. His former woodwind quintet, The Desert Island Winds created programs that highlighted the importance of chamber music for all music students and supporters. He has also performed across the world including Carnegie Hall, California Theater, Golden Gate Park, Ljubljana Theater, Slovak Radio Hall, Green Music Center, Faye-Spanos Concert Hall, Community Concert Hall of Durango, CO, Menlo-Atherton Center for Performing Arts, and various churches across California. Bennett Lopez earned a Master’s degree in Oboe Performance at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA under the direction and guidance of Allan Vogel and Joel Timm. Previously, he received his Bachelor’s of Music in Music Education from the University of the Pacific where he was a Theodore Presser Undergraduate Scholar. Bennett is inspired and engaged in performing new works by living composers. During his undergraduate career, he performed over 20 concerts of new music. Primarily fostering younger composer’s passion to write, he also played a role during Composers Inc.’s first ever orchestral debut concert. Premiering new works in Berkeley, Hayward, and Stockton with various ensembles, He has enjoyed all aspects of new music performance. Hailed by Stockton’s own ‘Stockton Record’, “Lopez impressed the judges during the Conservatory of Music’s annual concerto competition, earning the opportunity to accentuate [his] abilities as soloist with the University Symphony Orchestra…” As a freelancer, he has performed with groups across California including the San Francisco Wind Symphony, New Hammer Concert Band, and Los Angeles Doctor’s Symphony.
