Metcalf, John, 1946-

Person

Metcalf, John, 1946-

• Metcalf, John Philip, 1946-

John Metcalf was born in Swansea, Wales in 1946. He holds joint UK/Canadian citizenship. He is best known as a composer of chamber and orchestral music.
His notoriety grew both nationally and internationally with a series of orchestral and chamber works during the 1990s. These include Paradise Haunts, Dances from Forgotten Places and Mapping Wales. His composing career also includes several operas, including Kafka’s Chimp (1996); A Chair in Love (2005) and Under Milk Wood (2014). He also received commissions from the Welsh National Opera and the English Symphony Orchestra.
John Metcalf held positions as Associate Artistic Director of Music Theatre at the Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada, September-December 1986, and then Artistic Director until 1990, Artistic Director of the Swansea Festival from 1996-2007, and Artistic Director of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival. He also led creative music projects in schools throughout Wales.
He is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Lampeter, of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and of the University College Cardiff. He was a recipient of the John Edwards Memorial Award awarded by the Guild for the Promotion of Welsh Music for his services to music in Wales (1995).
In 1999 his music was played during the signing, by Her Majesty the Queen, of the Act bringing into being Wales’ first elected Assembly for 500 years. In Her Majesty’s 2012 New Years Honours List he was awarded an MBE for services to music.

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