John Winsor, Composer: Biography

JOHN STUDIED CLARINET with Robert Harrison, David Harris, and Robert Marcellus of the Cleveland Orchestra and composition with John Rinehart and James Waters. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Heidelberg College and a Master of Arts degree in music theory from Kent State University. During the 1979-1980 school year, he was a doctoral assistant in composition at Kent State. He has taught music theory and designed bandsman training materials at the Armed Forces School of Music. He has also taught clarinet, music theory, and composition at the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts. He has served as an adjudicator for VMTA composition contests (both the professional and student contests). He has been a senior computer programmer for both Mantech International and Unisys Corporation and is an adjunct clarinet instructor at Tidewater Community College. He is also sole proprietor of  BENCHMARK WEB SITES . 

John is a founding member of the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble, which was formed in 1988. The HCE performs about a dozen concerts annually for Virginia's colleges, universities, and other presenting organizations. They also perform once or twice annually in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the United States. The HCE has received grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and from the arts commissions of Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach.

John's composition prizes include the 1992 Delius vocal award for Four Songs, the 1995 Delius keyboard award for Three Preludes, the 1992 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition prize for Hardwick Quartet, the 1994 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition prize for Midas Retold, the Modern Music Festival 2000 Film Scoring Competition prize for Totem, and the 2004 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition for Chamber Symphony. John has received grants from the American Music Center and from Meet the Composer and several ASCAP awards. His works are frequently performed on composer conferences and festivals throughout the United States and, occasionally, in Europe.

Articles by and about John have been published in ComposerUSA. He is the author of Breaking the Sound Barrier: An Argument for Mainstream Literary Music (iUniverse Writer's Showcase), which won ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Bronze Award in the music book category and is listed as an iUniverse Editor's Choice. His Three Essays for orchestra was released on Volume 2 of ERM Media's Masterworks for the New Era series (Philharmonia Bulgarica; Robert Ian Winstin, cond.).

John is Membership Coordinator for the National Association of Composers/USA (NACUSA) and Vice President of both NACUSA/Virginia and the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble. He is one of the three nationally-elected NACUSA at-large board members. He is webmaster for the National Association of Composers/USA (NACUSA), NACUSA/Virginia, NACUSA/Los Angeles, the Virginia Music Teachers Association (VMTA), the Composer-Conductor Bridge, and the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble. He is also a member of the Society of Composers, Inc. and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).