Hailing from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, John began his musical study with piano lessons at the age of 8 and began composing at the age of 13 while also learning the guitar and violin. After matriculating at Yale University, John started arranging for his choir groups and pops orchestra. Also while at Yale, John began his conducting career, beginning with his choir group, Pitches and Tones.
After graduation, John received acceptance into New York University’s Film Scoring program in Fall 2017.
Since then he has worked on more than 45 films, commercials, television programs, and video games with directors from around the world such as Greece, Australia, India, and Great Britain. He has been awarded Best Original Score at 4 separate film festivals.
Also active in the concert music world, John has composed for several diverse ensembles. He was recently accepted to the Tennessee Contemporary Music Festival, the Space City New Music Festival, and the Sofia Symphonic Summit where he will premiere a new work for symphony orchestra. He was recently named a winner of the American Prize in composition for his piece “Through it All”. His piece “Rhapsodia” also recently won the Frost Orchestra Composition Competition and will be premiered in the Spring of 2022 by the Frost Symphony orchestra led by Maestro Gerard Schwarz. He graduated with his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the Frost School of Music in the Spring of 2022.
He can be contacted at Johnbaxter88@gmail.com.