John is a freelance musician in the Pacific Northwest.

He is the Principal Bass/Contrabass Trombonist of Orchestra Nova Northwest (formerly Portland Columbia Symphony), Oregon Coast Music Festival, Siletz Bay Music Festival, Big Horn Brass, Portland Chamber Orchestra,  Art Abrams Swing Machine Big Band,  King Machine and is a founder of the Northwest Trombone Collective, an Oregon-Based Trombone Choir.  John is a Voigt Brass Artist and performs on the Voigt J-475 Contrabass Trombone with dual tuning (F/C/Db/A and F/D/Bb/Ab) systems.

Ohnstad has performed with the Oregon Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, the Vancouver (WA) Symphony, the Newport Symphony, the Oregon Ballet, Portland Opera, Andrea Bocelli, the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, the Oregon Bach Festival and the Mt. Angel Abbey Bach Festival.

John studied at the University of Arizona. Upon graduating, he spent the summer at EPCOT Center in the Walt Disney World All-American College Orchestra.

Through international audition, John became a Fellow at the 2017 Alessi Seminar, an intensive week of trombone instruction and performance.

In January 2024, he premiered Brian Sadler’s Concerto for Contrabass Trombone with the Portland Columbia Symphony.

His teachers include Richard Ballou, Rick Tippets, Marc Wolters, Gary Nelson, Chris Leuba, Jeffrey Reynolds, Tom Ervin, Richard Obregon and George Roberts.

John is a member in good standing and is a contractor for AFM Local 99.