Michael Benshish is a graduate of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, with additional
graduate studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He has studied organ with Dr. Stephen
Widenhofer and Dr. David Schrader, piano with Dr. Bruce Gibbons, and jazz piano with Dr. Widenhofer.
He is a staff Collaborative Pianist in District 211 at Conant High School, with additional choral
accompanying duties at St. Charles East High School, St. Charles North High School, NICNATS, and
multiple other academic and cultural institutions.
Mr. Benshish is also the Director of Music and Worship at Lutheran Church of the Master in
Carol Stream, IL and continues to perform as both a freelance keyboardist/pianist and as the
musical director of the Al Sofia Band, which performs throughout the Chicago area and the Midwest.
He has toured throughout Europe and much of the U.S., and enjoys his “summer gig” of nightly
entertainment in Virginia Beach, Virginia as a part of the “Live! On Atlantic” music program.
Most recently, the original compositions of his Jazz Mass have been performed in multiple houses of
worship, and he continues to compose and record on a regular basis, both as a solo and as a
collaborative artist.
