Shannon Gunn

Shannon Gunn is a jazz trombonist from the Washington DC area who actively uses her music for social justice causes. In 2015 she co-founded, with local blog CapitalBop, the Jazz and Freedom Festival, which has in turn raised funds and support for non-profits such as Empower DC, Black Lives Matter DMV, WPFW-FM (DC’s Jazz and Justice radio station), the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation, and ICE Out Of DC. She is volunteer Program Manager of Jazz4Justice, a non-profit based out of Fairfax, VA, which creates collaborative partnerships between the legal community, the business community, the music community, and Universities to raise funds for Legal Aid (pro bono civil case legal assistance for low income individuals) and music scholarships. In 2019, she started Jazz Girls Day DC, in collaboration with the Washington Women in Jazz Festival, to empower young women to pursue jazz without boundaries from gender.
Hailed by the Washington City Paper as “D.C.’s Best Trombonist 2015” and the DistrictNow Blog as “Best Trombonist 2017,” DC based Shannon Gunn is known for her exceptional tone and her grandiose project-du-jour. She released “Gunn’s Ablazin,” her freshman solo project, in August 2019 to critical acclaim. Her organ trio, Firebird, was named “DC’s Best Small Ensemble 2016” by the Washington City Paper. She has performed at the DC Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center, Castleton Theatre House, Washington Women in Jazz Festival, Takoma Park Jazz Festival, National Jazz Workshop, Bohemian Caverns, and many other venues across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.