BIOGRAPHY
T he music of John H. Wallace has been performed widely in the U.S. and Europe, heard on WGBH radio’s All Classical Festival, and recorded on the Summit and Centaur Record labels. He has worked with members of the Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston Symphonies, and groups such as the Arneis Quartet, Music at Eden’s Edge, New Music DePaul, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, ALEA III, Arcadian Winds, Chicago Clarinet Trio, Riverway Trio, Pinotage, Fifth Floor Collective, Winsor Music, Chicago Chamber Music Collective, and singers Luiza Dedisin, Julia Bentley, Penelope Bitzas, Christina English, and Krista River. The Vilnius String Quartet and Lithuanian-American pianist Rokas Zubovas performed his Piano Quintet on a three-city tour of Lithuania, and the Virtuoso Soloists of New York premiered Triskele on a three-city tour of Italy and How Curious the Light Behaves on a multi-city tour of Portugal. His Symphonia for large orchestra was one of three works selected for the Chicago Civic Orchestra’s 1990 Illinois Composer’s Reading Sessions, coordinated by then Chicago Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence, John Corigliano, and conducted by Michael Morgan.
He has studied with composers Lukas Foss, Charles Fussell, Alan Stout, Raymond Wilding-White and Darleen Cowles-Mitchell. He received his doctoral degree from Boston University (Composition), masters degree from Northwestern University (Composition) and bachelors degree from DePaul University (Composition/French Horn Performance). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Theory in the Boston University School of Music, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Coordinator of Online Theory, and was the first Composer-in-Residence at the Cabot Performing Arts Center in Beverly, Massachusetts. He is a 2009 recipient of an Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Award from the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).
An active member of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium from 1996–2004, he chaired that organization from 1996-98. As chair, he was interviewed for the premiere edition of the American Music Center’s webzine, NewMusicBox. In addition to his current activities at Boston University, he has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, DePaul University and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and guest lectured at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University, The Boston Conservatory and Middlesex Community College. Additionally, he served as the Business Manager of the DePaul University School of Music.
As a horn player, he has performed with various ensembles, including the Park Forest Orchestra, Waukegan Symphony, Lake Shore Brass Quintet, Bristol Renaissance Faire, and Disney’s All-American College Marching Band. Notable performances include the first inauguration of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, and performances for Illinois Governor James R. Thompson and President Ronald Reagan.
