BIography
Founder & Artistic Director: Orchestra for the Earth
Music Director: Oxford Opera
Highlights of 2024/25 include John's debuts with the Athens State Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic and Franz Schubert Filharmonia, a return to the Berliner Symphoniker at the Philharmonie in Berlin, a new production of Puccini's Tosca with Oxford Opera and concerts with his own Orchestra for the Earth. The past season saw debuts with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Slovak State Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker and Armenian Symphony Orchestra, and in previous seasons he has also conducted orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic and worked with soloists such as Thomas Hampson, James Ehnes, Wu Wei and Camille Thomas.
2024/25 will be his fourth season as Music Director of Oxford Opera, with whom he has conducted several productions including most recently La Traviata and Die Zauberflöte. He has also conducted at Glyndebourne, Palau de les Arts Valencia and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in repertoire ranging from Janáček to Puccini to Mozart. As a frequent guest conductor with Spectra Ensemble he has put a special emphasis on underperformed operas by women composers, leading critically acclaimed productions of works by Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach.
His pioneering work with Orchestra for the Earth, which he founded in 2017, takes him around Europe with a wide variety of concerts that bring together music and nature, collaborating with leading artists, scientists and charities to raise awareness about the climate and environmental crises.
A committed advocate of contemporary music, John has been invited to commission and conduct world premieres at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Het Concertgebouw and, most recently, a week-long residency at the Beijing Music Festival which included four world premieres and five Chinese premieres of contemporary classics by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Huang Ruo, Sir George Benjamin and Messiaen.
John honed his craft as assistant to many of the world’s leading conductors, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Karina Canellakis, Robin Ticciati and Edward Gardner, working with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Staatskapelle, Wiener Symphoniker, Les Siècles and others.
He studied music at the University of Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours in 2016 and an MSt with Distinction in 2017. He also writes on music, with frequent publications in the Wagner Journal and an upcoming book published by Routledge. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Curtis Institute and Johns Hopkins University in the US.
