Born in Flintshire, North Wales, John studied singing with Jeffrey Lawton at the Royal Northern College of Music. His prizes have included the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Award, the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss prize, the Prince of Wales Advanced Study Award and an Independent Opera Scholarship. He was a finalist in the Young Welsh Singer of the Year, singing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff. He is currently a trainee at the National Opera Studio, studying with Ryland Davies and supported by WNO, a Lionel Anthony Scholarship, a Susan Chilcott Award and the Welsh Arts Council.
On the concert platform he has sung Handel’s Messiah, the Mozart Requiem, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, Rossini’s La Petite Messe Solennelle and the Stabat Mater, the Puccini Messa di Gloria, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
His opera engagements include Alfredo Die Fledermaus, Boris Katya Kabanova (RNCM), Rodolfo in La Bohème (RNCM Excerpts). In summer 2009, John joined the Glyndebourne Chorus.
Current engagements/future plans: recitals in Cardiff, Pinkerton Madam Butterfly for Mid Wales Opera, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the Opéra national de Lorraine, Roderigo Otello in concert for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra c. Gianandrea Noseda.
John is the winner of the Welsh Singer of the Year Competition 2010, 2010 MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year, and will represent Wales in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2011.