Ryan Benyo

After starting piano lessons at age five, Ryan knew that he didn't want to be a musician, he had to be a musician. Thirteen years later, Ryan is living his dream as an accomplished Jazz keyboardist studying music production at McNally Smith College of Music.

From a young age, Ryan was always performing. His first regular paying gig was for The Fairfax County Government Center, where he played recitals for retirement communities at the age of thirteen. In high school, Ryan was the piano player for the jazz band and a percussionist for the concert and marching bands. He also taught piano lessons to ten students, while maintaining a three year long position as church pianist for the Amissville United Methodist Church.

In his free time, Ryan was able to write, record, produce, and release 5 solo albums under his independent record label, RB Records. These albums, classified in the Pop, Inspirational, Rock, and Alternative genres, were sold all around the Washington, DC area.

In Ryan's senior year at high school, he managed to land an extraordinary gig with master songwriter, composer, and producer Paul Reisler; founder of Kid Pan Alley. As Paul's personal assistant, Ryan traveled around elementary schools writing songs with children and performing with the nationally acclaimed Kid Pan Alley Band. As a result, Ryan has had the honor to perform many prestigious events including the Governor of Virginia's Fund Raiser for Poverty and former Maestro of the New York Philharmonic Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival. Since then, Ryan's been exposed to a vast spectrum of musical genres including Pop, Rock, R&B, Jazz, Funk, Country, Classical, and Latin.

When Ryan moved from Virginia to Saint Paul, he was more than excited about furthering his education at McNally Smith College of Music. In Saint Paul, Ryan is currently the keyboardist for Jordan Holm, daughter of the Twin Cities Star Johnny Holm, and can be seen sitting in for many bands in the Saint Paul area.

On a side note, Ryan has received a Recording Engineering and Music Production certificate from The Recording Workshop in Ohio and is currently writing and producing a project at the McKern Studio Complex at McNally Smith College of Music. His passion for inspiring other people and bringing their musical creations to life has led him to follow his dream as a music producer.

Ryan is ambitiously involved with McNally Smith and their keyboarding department as a member of the Jazz Ensemble and the studio performance class. He is currently studying with jazz instructor Sean Turner.

All in all, Ryan lives by the mentality that all great producers, creators, and educators substitute asking "Why?" with "Why Not?"