John Winsor 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 music theory 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 student composition contests. Until May, 2005, John was a senior computer programmer for Unisys Corporation.
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, or 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 prize for Totem, and the 2004 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition prize for Chamber Symphony. John has received grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer and awards from ASCAP. His works are frequently performed at new music festivals and conferences throughout the United States. Since 1992, he has received seven commissions from various arts organizations. Recent premieres of John's works included the Virginia Beach Chorale's performance of Jabberwocky and performance of Chamber Symphony on the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra's chamber music series. The Cologne performance was broadcast on the WDR (West German Radio). His Three Essays for orchestra was released on Volume II of the ERM Media Masterworks of the New Era CD series (Philharmonia Bulgarica; Robert Ian Winstin, cond.). Articles by and about John have been published in ComposerUSA.
John is the founder of NACUSA/Virginia, Vice President of the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble, and Membership Coordinator for the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA). In addition, as sole proprietor of Benchmark Web Sites, he maintains websites for the following organizations:
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National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA) Virginia Music Teachers Association (VMTA) Hardwick Chamber Ensemble NACUSA/Los Angeles NACUSA/Virginia The Composer-Conductor Bridge |