Bio
Living in Vancouver, John is a composer, producer, trumpet player, and educator.
He is the leader and principle composer of the 17-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, a highly active jazz/ new music ensemble that has toured to Europe and across Canada, released two CDs, and is the recipient of Canada's largest arts prize, The Alcan Arts Award.
As a composer, John has been commissioned by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The CBC Radio Orchestra, the Albany Symphony New Music Festival, Vancouver New Music, Turning Point Ensemble, The Standing Wave Ensemble, and several Dutch ensembles such as LOOS, Combustion Chamber, Tetzepi Bigtet, Zapp String Quartet and De Ereprijs.
His score for the documentary Heroines (2002) earned him Leo and Golden Sheaf Awards and a Gemini Nomination. His score for Prisoners of Age (2005 ) a Leo Award. Other documentaries include Drawing Out the Demos: A Film About the Artist Attila Richard Lukacs (2005) and Dark Pines (2006).
John has also produced many large multi-media extravaganzas such as Enter/ Exit (2005) at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, The Ice Age: The World's First New Music Ice Show (2000), at Kerrisdale Arena, and The Elvis Cantatas (1994, 1996), at St. Andrew's Wesley Church.
CBC Television recently produced a 60-minute version of the Elvis Cantata entitled Cantata for the King for their program, "Opening Night".
John graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1990, was a frequent participant at The Banff Centre between 1984 and 1994, and studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the Netherlands from 1995 to 1997. In 2001, he was awarded the Canada Council's Joseph S. Stauffer Prize for music, literature and visual arts. In 2003 John was the second Canadian to be awarded a fellowship to the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy.
As a trumpet player, John has performed in the jazz festivals of Berlin, Havana, Chicago, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Montreal and has performed with international artists such as George Lewis, Butch Morris, Barry Guy, Kenny Wheeler, Han Bennink, The NOW Orchestra, The Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Paul Ellington).
John also leads the very popular 20-piece salsa/ latin-jazz orchestra, Orquesta Goma Dura, which has released a live CD on CBC's Mothercorp records.
John is on faculty at The Banff Centre's Jazz Composition Residency and teaches at VCC and Capilano College.
He is the leader and principle composer of the 17-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, a highly active jazz/ new music ensemble that has toured to Europe and across Canada, released two CDs, and is the recipient of Canada's largest arts prize, The Alcan Arts Award.
As a composer, John has been commissioned by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The CBC Radio Orchestra, the Albany Symphony New Music Festival, Vancouver New Music, Turning Point Ensemble, The Standing Wave Ensemble, and several Dutch ensembles such as LOOS, Combustion Chamber, Tetzepi Bigtet, Zapp String Quartet and De Ereprijs.
His score for the documentary Heroines (2002) earned him Leo and Golden Sheaf Awards and a Gemini Nomination. His score for Prisoners of Age (2005 ) a Leo Award. Other documentaries include Drawing Out the Demos: A Film About the Artist Attila Richard Lukacs (2005) and Dark Pines (2006).
John has also produced many large multi-media extravaganzas such as Enter/ Exit (2005) at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, The Ice Age: The World's First New Music Ice Show (2000), at Kerrisdale Arena, and The Elvis Cantatas (1994, 1996), at St. Andrew's Wesley Church.
CBC Television recently produced a 60-minute version of the Elvis Cantata entitled Cantata for the King for their program, "Opening Night".
John graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1990, was a frequent participant at The Banff Centre between 1984 and 1994, and studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the Netherlands from 1995 to 1997. In 2001, he was awarded the Canada Council's Joseph S. Stauffer Prize for music, literature and visual arts. In 2003 John was the second Canadian to be awarded a fellowship to the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy.
As a trumpet player, John has performed in the jazz festivals of Berlin, Havana, Chicago, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Montreal and has performed with international artists such as George Lewis, Butch Morris, Barry Guy, Kenny Wheeler, Han Bennink, The NOW Orchestra, The Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Paul Ellington).
John also leads the very popular 20-piece salsa/ latin-jazz orchestra, Orquesta Goma Dura, which has released a live CD on CBC's Mothercorp records.
John is on faculty at The Banff Centre's Jazz Composition Residency and teaches at VCC and Capilano College.