John McGinness is the bass trombonist of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and is a freelance trombone performer and educator based in the greater Baltimore/Washington, DC area. John is a member of the Washington Trombone Ensemble and is the Adjunct Instructor of Trombone at Washington Adventist University.
John has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Youngstown (OH), and has participated in solo, chamber, and orchestral performances across the United States and in Mexico, Austria, and the Czech Republic. During the summers of 2003-2008 John was the bass trombonist of the Camp of the Woods Orchestra in Speculator, NY. John was selected to be a member of Peter Ellefson’s Fellow Class at the 2009 Alessi Trombone Seminar in Albuquerque, NM, and was an invited member of the Performers Class at the Pokorny Low Brass Seminar in Redlands, CA, in the summers of 2010 and 2011. John was a finalist in the 2011 Eastern Trombone Workshop Bass Trombone Solo Competition (Div. III) and for the bass trombone chair in the 2011 YouTube Symphony.
Before relocating to the mid-Atlantic, John lived in Dallas, TX, where he was a freelance trombonist, performing with the Allen (TX) Philharmonic and the Providence Brass Quintet, and maintained a private low brass studio that ranged in age from 5th-12th grade and in number from 40-50 students.
John is originally from Houston, TX, and holds degrees from the University of Houston and Southern Methodist University. His primary teachers include Michael Warny, Houston Ballet Orchestra; John Kitzman, Dallas Symphony; and informal study with Allen Barnhill, Houston Symphony.
Currently, John and his wife Elizabeth, a flutist in the “Pershing’s Own” U.S. Army Concert Band, live in Northern Virginia.
“My Edwards trombone is a joy to play in every situation. It allows me to create the sounds I want to make and doesn’t get in the way of the music I’m trying to create. It allows the flexibility I need in solo and chamber settings but has the breadth of sound necessary to contribute in the orchestra. The bottom line is that whether I’m playing ballads to myself or launching an assault on the viola section, my Edwards trombone just works.”