BIography

2024/25 season highlights include 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 Orchestra for the Earth.

In recent seasons, John has appeared with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Slovak State Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Armenian Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Philharmonic, collaborating with artists including Thomas Hampson, Susan Bullock, James Ehnes, Wu Wei, and Roman Simovic. In 2025, he received the Mahler Foundation’s inaugural Mahler Award at Het Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival in Amsterdam.

 

Now in his fourth season as Music Director of Oxford Opera, John has conducted productions including La Traviata and Die Zauberflöte, as well as opera galas and education projects across the city. His operatic work has also taken him to Glyndebourne, Palau de les Arts Valencia, and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in repertoire ranging from Janáček to Puccini to Mozart. With Spectra Ensemble, he has focused on underperformed works by women composers, leading well-received productions of operas by Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach.

 

With Orchestra for the Earth, which he founded in 2017, John presents concerts that bring together music and nature, often in striking locations, in collaboration with artists, scientists, and environmental organisations.

 

He has been invited to commission and conduct world premieres at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Het Concertgebouw, and the Beijing Music Festival, where he led a week-long residency featuring new works and Chinese premieres by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Huang Ruo, Sir George Benjamin, and Messiaen.

 

Earlier in his career, John worked as assistant to conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Karina Canellakis, Robin Ticciati and Edward Gardner, with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Staatskapelle, Wiener Symphoniker and Les Siècles.

 

John studied music at the University of Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours in 2016 and an MSt with Distinction in 2017. He writes regularly for the Wagner Journal and his work has been published by Routledge. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Curtis Institute and Johns Hopkins University in the US.