John Young

Who is John Young?

John Young is an electroacoustic music composer born March 4, 1962 in Christchurch, New Zealand, and currently living in Leicester, UK.

He studied at the University of Canterbury, completing a doctorate on the manipulation of environmental sound sources in electroacoustic music. In 1989, with the assistance of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand, he travelled to the UK to further his studies of electroacoustic music composition working privately in the studios of the University of East Anglia with Denis Smalley.

He returned to New Zealand in 1990 to take up a position at Victoria University of Wellington where he became a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios. In November 2000 he joined the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University in Leicester where is now Professor of Composition.

His main interest in composition continues to be in acousmatic music, particularly forms based on the interplay between recognizable natural sound sources and computer-based studio transformations, but also combines electroacoustics with instrumental media.

He has a received a number of international awards, including First Prize in the 1996 Stockholm Electronic Arts Award, a First Prize in the 34th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition and Second Prize in the 4th Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo.