He began his career at the Welsh National Opera, was founder Chorus Master of Opera North, and has been Head of Music of Scottish Opera, and Music Director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He spent several years in South Africa conducting regular seasons of Symphony concerts as well as opera and ballet. He has been Music Director of Northern Ballet Theatre since 1992 and is Artistic Director of the Halifax Choral Society, and the North of England Chamber Orchestra.
John has conducted throughout the UK, including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra, the CBSO, RLPO, BBC Philharmonic, LPO, English National Opera, and English National Ballet, and has conducted in the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Scandinavia and Turkey and Thailand.
John has a fanatical commitment to encouraging and expanding the provision of music for young people as a stimulus for general education and confidence building. He is the founder Artistic Director of NOEL (Northern Orchestral Enterprises Ltd.) based at Dean Clough in Halifax, which has re-established the Yorkshire Youth Orchestra, formed the Yorkshire Youth Choir, and various Singing for Fun groups based on Kodály principles, for children aged 4 and upwards, and runs specialist teacher’s workshops for Primary School teachers. In recognition of his work in music education, Huddersfield University conferred on him the Degree of Honorary Doctor of Letters.
He has made a number of recordings with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Co., the Halifax Choral Society, Black Dyke Brass Band, Britannia Brass Band, Opera North Chorus, and Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra. These have received several awards including a record of the year award from the Gramophone magazine in December 2000 for Northern Ballet Theatre’s ballet Great Expectations.
In the summer of 2005 he led an International Conductor’s masterclass in Italy and conducted the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra in the Bangkok Music Festival. He appears regularly throughout the UK conducting Raymond Gubbay orchestral concerts.
Under his leadership the Yorkshire Youth Choir was Choir of the Day in the regional rounds of the BBC Choir of the Year Competition in April 2008.
John is married to a musician, Alison, who teaches and conducts numerous choirs, and has two children – a son, Rodric, who plays lead guitar in the successful rock band Idlewild, and a sixteen year-old daughter, Catrin.