John Bennett was born and raised in the Bay Area; he attended San Francisco State University and California State University at Hayward and has worked for several summers with Burton Kaplan at the Practice Marathon Retreats in New York. His cello teachers include Allen Gove, Laszlo Varga, Margaret Rowell, and Irene Sharp, with chamber music coaching from Bonnie Hampton and Roy Bogas. Currently, Mr. Bennett is the cello instructor at Pacific Union College and the Paulin Center for the Creative Arts in Angwin where he teaches the cello, coaches chamber music and conducts a cello choir. He maintains a private teaching studio at his home in Vallejo, is a member of the Vallejo Symphony and the Napa Valley Symphony, freelances as much as time permits, and has a music contracting business, The Armonioso String Group. Mr. Bennett loves to sing and is a member of the Valejo Chorale Society and the choir director at The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in Vallejo. Mr. Bennett frequently performs with his wife, the pianist, Karen Balabanian.