Prior to his appointment as Acting Principal Trombone with the Dayton Philharmonic for their 2024/2025 season, Tyler Bentley has served as a first call substitute and extra musician with the orchestra since 2019. He makes regular appearances with other orchestras in the region including the Cincinnati Symphony, the Lima Symphony, and the Richmond Indiana Symphony.
One of his earliest memories as a child is hearing what he would later discover were members of the brass family—and more specifically the trombones—bringing home the climax of the ‘Pas de deux’ from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, a memory that he believes goes all the way back to the days of his mother playing classical music selections for him in the crib within his childhood home in Anderson, Indiana. This early exposure to music would set the foundation for a lifetime obsession with the range of timbral and musical expression possible on the trombone, and for those familiar with the ‘Pas de deux,’ was also an unwitting masterclass on the descending G Major scale.
Mr Bentley studied with Professor Timothy Anderson (of DPO fame, having served many years as the orchestra’s principal trombone) at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music where he earned a Bachelor of Music, Cum Laude in trombone performance, and Dr William Stanley at the University of Colorado, Boulder College of Music where he earned a Master of Music in trombone performance. He has also studied privately and in masterclass settings with teachers including the New York Philharmonic’s Joseph Alessi, Cincinnati Symphony’s Cristian Ganicenco and Joseph Rodriguez, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra’s Per Brevig.
When Tyler doesn’t have a trombone in his hands, you might find him exploring electronic soundworlds on his semi-modular analog synthesizer, building technical contraptions on his Minecraft Server, or perhaps even scooping a litter box.