Gina Benalcázar López is an Ecuadorian-Honduran-American composer and low brass specialist. Influenced by straight-ahead jazz, latin-jazz, and popular Latin American music, Gina has performed with, arranged, and composed for various size bands ranging in style from Classical Chamber to Jazz Big Band and Salsa Bands.
Gina has worked with some of the world's most prolific band leaders and can be found playing with The Sinfonietta, The Roy Hargrove Big Band, Etienne Charles’ Creole Soul, The Rufus Reid Big Band, The Dee Dee Bridgewater Big Band, Ulysses Owens Jr’s New Century Big Band, Helen Sung’s Big Band, Ted Nash’s Big Band, Lulada Club, and made her Broadway debut in Huey Lewis’ “The Heart of Rock and Roll.”
Gina’s discography is expansive, credited her as both soloist and arranger/composer as a side-person. Her full discography can be found on her website.
As a band leader Gina was selected as a recipient of Chamber Music America’s Performance Plus Grant in 2020 which helped her record her debut album, The BOUNCE featuring her original compositions. She was a recipient for CMA’s grant in 2025 for her project “La Orquestra Esa” which explores her Latin-jazz arrangements that range from mambos, tangos, Cha Cha, Afro-Cuban and cumbia. Her band has made a home at Dizzy’s where she has premiered pieces with her quartet, 10tet, and Big Band.
Gina is a Yamaha Artist and plays exclusively on Yamaha instruments.
