John William Griffith II is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and singer based in London. He received his Master of Music in Composition at the Royal College of Music in 2023, with a second study in conducting. His mentors at the RCM included Alison Kay, Eric Whitacre, and Howard Williams. John received his Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2020, where he received multiple awards for his choral, opera, and orchestral compositions. His teachers at IU included Claude Baker, Don Freund, Sven-David Sandström, Aaron Travers, and David Dzubay. He was named the winner of the RCM Autumn 2022 Concerto Competition for his orchestral piece, When I’m reminded of home and was selected to compose and organise Metamorphosis: Music Visualised for the RCM Great Exhibitionists Concert Series.

In the summer of 2021, John curated the performance series “Chamber Music at Copshaholm” in collaboration with the History Museum of South Bend (Indiana, USA). For this project, he composed nine solo works for cello, oboe, violin, horn, and piano, performing as a pianist. He also served as the coordinator and fundraiser for the event, which was featured prominently in the local press.

As a conductor, John has led orchestras in standard works including Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9. He served as the assistant conductor to Timothy Brown at the 2022 Horto Music Festival (Greece), preparing the chorus for Haydn’s The Creation.

John has developed a particular interest in writing and conducting choral music. While at Indiana University, he studied choral composition with the late Sven-David Sandström, and performed for four years with the NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, directed by Dominick DiOrio. In March 2023, John composed and premiered Gospel Oak, a seminal work consisting of nine songs for double choir a cappella, with texts by Welsh poet Sharon Morris. For this project, John was mentored by Eric Whitacre and Timothy Brown. In the autumn of 2023, John will sing with the Eric Ericsons Kammarkör of Stockholm, Sweden, in a rare performance of Sandström’s The High Mass (1994).

Click here for John’s full curriculum vitae.