The Official Site of Saxophonist Eli Bennett

At age 20, award-winning tenor saxophonist, composer, and Rico Reeds Artist Eli Bennett, is quickly becoming one of the most compelling young voices on the international jazz scene. Currently attending Humber College in Toronto on a full scholarship, Bennett has performed with such jazz luminaries as Oscar Peterson, Hank Jones, Maria Schneider, Barry Harris, James Moody, Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, the Labarbera Brothers, and Mike Stern.

Since first picking up the saxophone at age 12, Bennett quickly progressed under the guidance of saxophone master Stan Karp and began to play professionally at age 14. In 2005, at the age of 15, Bennett won the Rico Reed Award at Musicfest Canada for best high school saxophonist in Canada. In 2007, he won the Fraser MacPherson Scholarship for the finest young jazz instrumentalist in western Canada, the Dal Richards Scholarship for best high school musician at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Yamaha Kando Award for most outstanding young musician in Canada, IAJE Canada's highest scholarship award, and the prestigious Oscar Peterson Grant for Jazz Performance, a $10,000 grant awarded by the Hnatyshyn Foundation, a private Canadian charity which recognizes one outstanding young jazz musician every year.

In February 2007, the GRAMMY Foundation selected Bennett as the first horn player in the history of the fifteen year long program to perform with the Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Combo, which was comprised of the most outstanding four high school musicians on the continent. The band performed at GRAMMY events such as the Salute To Jazz, the Nominee Reception, the Post-Party Celebration, and recorded at renowned Capitol Records in Hollywood, as well as being honored guests of the GRAMMY Foundation as they attended the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast. This was his second year with the program; in 2006 he played first tenor in the GRAMMY Big Band.

Bennett's composition Mistaken Perception, was awarded a 2007 DownBeat Magazine Student Award for best high school composition, an award from the International Songwriting Competition, as well as an award from the Vancouver Jazz Festival.

Bennett has performed at numerous jazz festivals including the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, where he opened for McCoy Tyner with the Galaxie Rising Stars of the CBC, the Telluride Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, as well as the All-Canadian Jazz Festival, where he performed with Canada's best high-school jazz quintet three years consecutively. In May of 2007, Bennett was awarded a scholarship to attend the Banff Jazz Orchestra Workshop, where he was a featured soloist for the final concert with Maria Schneider. In 2008, Bennett was awarded another scholarship to attend the Banff Creative Music Program led by Dave Douglas.

This previous year of 2008 has seen Bennett the busiest yet. In January, he was selected as a Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellow, described as the world's best jazz sixtet for college freshmen, in collaboration with the NFAA, and was featured at the IAJE Conference held January 2008 in Toronto. In February, Bennett toured England for nine days with the world renowned Humber College Studio Jazz Ensemble, directed by Denny Christianson, and also performed featured concerts in Toronto, Montreal, and headlined Musicfest Canada in Ottawa. Soon after, Bennett was awarded the 2008 Fraser MacPherson Scholarship, the Doug Richardson Memorial Award, the Dr. Oscar Peterson/Verve Canada Scholarship, and the prestigious International 2008 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Award (YYPA), for best international saxophonist under 21. In addition to being selected as the only jazz musician of the year, Bennett was the first Canadian to win this award since the program's inception in 1989.

In March 2009, Bennett was awarded the prestigious Oscar Peterson Prize, the highest award given by Humber College to an enrolled student, consisting of an award and $5,000. Also, in May of 2009, Bennett was awarded the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award from the 2009 National Jazz Awards. Most recently, Bennett was awarded the JAZZ.FM91/Mary Alice Stuart Scholarship Award at the July 2009 Toronto International Jazz Festival, and the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award from the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.

In addition to performing on over half a dozen film scores, he has also been featured on many TV and radio shows such as Entertainment Tonight Canada, MTV, CTV's Canada AM, CBC Radio, JazzFM, and DownBeat Magazine.