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James A. John, DMA
James John is Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music,
Queens College-CUNY, where he conducts the Queens College Choir, Vocal Ensemble and Choral Society, teaches choral
conducting, and serves as advisor to the graduate program in vocal performance.
Under Dr. John's leadership, the choral program at the Aaron Copland School of Music has become recognized
as one of
the finest collegiate choral programs in the region. Past performances have included an award-winning production of
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Requiems by Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms, "A Night at the Opera" with Queens College alumna
Erika
Sunnegardh of the Metropolitan Opera, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, and world premieres of works by Sidney
Boquiren, Leo Kraft, Meg Collins Stoop, and others. His choirs have performed in many of New York's prestigious
venues, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Vocal Ensemble
recently released its first CD, featuring premiere recordings of partsongs by Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn, and
the Queens College Choir was selected to perform at the 2010 New York State School of Music Association convention in
Rochester, NY.Dr. John's guest conducting appearances include Avery Fisher Hall's annual Messiah Sing-In, a concert of
American
choral music with the Virginia Chorale (Virginia's only professional choral ensemble), chorus master for the Queens
Symphony, regional honor choirs throughout New York State, and a forthcoming recording with jazz trumpeter Michael
Mossman. He has given presentations at both divisional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors
Association, and is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States.Dr. John has also served as Guest Lecturer in conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg,
Germany,
and
presented seminars on American choral music in Basel and Stockholm. His dissertation on Brahms's Nänie, Op. 82,
won
the Julius Herford Prize from the American Choral Directors Association and will be published soon in revised form as
a book by The Edwin Mellen Press. His articles have appeared in Choral Journal, The American Choral Review, and the
American Choral Foundation's Research Memorandum Series. He has served as Project Chair for Research and Scholarship
for ACDA's Eastern Division and is currently a member of ACDA's National Research and Publications Committee, as well
as a member of the Editorial Board for The American Choral Review.
Dr. John received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music. Prior to his current
position at the Aaron Copland School of Music, he served as Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University in
Boston, Director of Choral Activities at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY, and as Dartmouth College's
first Conducting Fellow. He received his Master of Arts in Conducting from the Aaron Copland School of Music. |
