In 2015-16, John held two academic appointments: as the sabbatical replacement at Wellesley College (choral conductor), and as Visiting Lecturer in Voice at Cornell University, where he was also a doctoral student in the Performance Practice program within Cornell’s Department of Music. Prior to that, he was affiliated with the Cornell Glee Club and Chorus 2002-15, as Assistant Conductor and Interim Conductor (2012-13). He also held an appointment as Associate Director of Choral Music 2010-15. He has conducted Cornell choral groups at such venues as Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as on international tours to Brazil, China, and the U.K.
Trained in classical piano from the age of seven and a competition-winning pianist as a teenager, John originally matriculated at Cornell as a Ph.D. student in Philosophy. His performance focus is on choral conducting, and his dissertation—a project in applied bio-musicology—examines how our ideas about performance change when we take seriously the latest findings in the neurophysiology of music and the growing body of evidence that music is hardwired into us humans, in part because of the role it plays in creating and nurturing community.
John has been heard as a baritone soloist in the Fingerlakes Bach Festival and with New York State Baroque. He also enjoys working with singers from the keyboard, as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist. In 2014, John became a Certified Yoga Teacher. After enduring 29 winters in the Northeast, John came to his senses and moved home to Hawai`i, where he works as Director of Music & Organist at Keawala`i Congregational Church, as Executive Director of the Maui Chamber Orchestra, and as a voice teacher in Kūpono Music Studio.