John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from the College of New Jersey, and the Master of Music degree in Applied Saxophone from West Virginia University. He also studied clarinet, saxophone, music theory and arranging privately with Bill Humenay for many years after graduate school, and arranging under the tutelage of Bill Holcombe and Marion Evans.

He has 42 years of experience teaching instrumental music in the public schools of New Jersey and Philadelphia, and as an adjunct teacher at the Lawrenceville School, where he was Director of the Jazz Ensemble and Instructor of Woodwinds. John plays woodwinds professionally with many classical and pop musical groups for concerts, theatrical and social events. He has performed with the Delaware Valley, Trenton, Rhode Island, Hartford, Springfield, Eastern Connecticut, Reading, Bridgeton and Allentown Symphonies, in benefits for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stamford Symphony, and in the orchestras behind Bob Hope, Carol Channing, Rita Moreno, Chita Rivera, Al Martino, The Temptations, the Drifters, Manhattan Transfer, John Popper, Harry James, Bobby Rydel, the Brian Pastor Big Band, and many others.