About Me
John was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and moved to Syracuse, New York when he was still a toddler. He started playing piano at age six and alto saxophone in the fourth grade. In fifth grade his elementary band director, Fred Straub, switched him to tenor saxophone which he plays to this day. A few years later he started private instruction with the father of all the Syracuse saxophone players, Jerry Sante. Those years were unusually rich with exceptional musicians in the schools he attended. The Henninger High School Band in the seventies counted among its members, local saxophone stand-out, Joe Carello, Tom Brigandi (Chuck Mangione), Roland Wilcox (The Tonight Show) and many more.John received his BM in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 1984. For the next five years, he worked as a music educator in the Syracuse City Schools, and began playing and studying around the Syracuse-Utica area with the likes of Joe Magnarelli, Sal Amico, Jimmy Johns, Joel Weiskopf and Rick Montalbano.In 1989, in an effort to broaden his abilities as both a teacher and a performer, John moved to New York City to attend Queens College where he studied with Jimmy Heath and Donald Byrd and received an MA in Music Performance. While in New York, he worked as an instructor and supervisor for Paul Effman School Music Service, the largest provider of Catholic school music programs in the New York City Metropolitan area.Desiring a return his CNY roots, in 1993 John left New York City.Shortly thereafter, he and Joe Carello started an elementary, instrumental music teaching program, called The Band Bus, which continues to this day, and provides most of the private schools in the area with band programs.Johns performance credits include the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Jane Monheit (Concord Recording Artist), the Central New York Jazz Orchestra w/ guest soloists Clark Terry, Bob Mintzer, Slide Hampton etc. and a variety of touring shows such as The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra Jr. Recordings with Danny D’Imperio, Los Blancos, Eye Level, and Rick Montalbano. He is also a private music instructor at Cornell University and Le Moyne College.
