Discipline: Music Composition

John Austin

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Chicago, IL
MacDowell Fellowships: 1976
John B Austin is an American composer whose work has been performed widely around Chicago and the United States at festivals such as Tanglewood, Aspen, and Door County. A founding member of the Chicago Society of Composers, Austin has received commissions from a variety of ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, the Southern University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. The Metropolitan Opera Guild deemed Austin’s one-act Opera Orpheus (1966) the first rock-and-roll opera. During his time at Harvard, Austin was mentored by Roy Harris. He was also a member of the Boston Chorus Pro Musica, and later a member of the Grant Park and Chicago Symphony Choruses. Austin’s other mentors include Robert Lombardo at Roosevelt University (M.M.), and Ralph Shapey at the University of Chicago (Ph.D.). Austin taught in music departments at the Latin School of Chicago, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, and the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Studios

New Jersey

John Austin worked in the New Jersey studio.

The yellow clapboard New Jersey Studio, located on a grassy, sloping site, was funded by the New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs and built as an exact replica of Monday Music Studio (1913). The studio’s porch rests on fieldstone piers that increase in height as the ground slopes to the west. Like Monday Music Studio, New Jersey…

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