John was born in Hampshire but spent his early childhood in Kenya and Uganda. In 1999, he moved to Scotland and in 2005, was awarded a place at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. Whilst there, he won the Isobel Dunlop Prize for Composition, judged by James MacMillan, whilst studying under Tom David Wilson. He furthered his composition studies at the University of York (BA) with Roger Marsh, Bill Brooks and Thomas Simaku, and at the Royal Academy of Music (MA) with Philip Cashian, passing with distinction. He is also a graduate of Darwin College, Cambridge (PGCE), where he was Choral Director. He is a winner of the Alan Bush Prize and recipient of the NCEM 2015 Young Composers Award (19-25). John’s piece, Morph, for recorder quartet, was recently selected for the finals of the inaugural Society of Recorder Players Compososer’s Competition 2019, and was performed by BLOCK4 in Ushaw College, Durham.

He has taught Academic Music and Composition at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and is currently Head of Music Technology in a school in South London. His music has been performed by ensembles including CHROMA, the Dunedin Consort, Blossom Street Singers, the Meridian Piano Quartet, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and in concerts internationally.