John Stanley Body ONZM (7 October 1944 – 10 May 2015)[1] was a New Zealand composer, ethnomusicologist, photographer, teacher, and arts producer.

[2] A deep and long-standing interest in the music of non-Western cultures – particularly South-East Asian – influenced much of his composing work, particularly his technique of transcribing field recordings.

[4] In January 2022, following a formal apology by the university to these students, the Arts Foundation confirmed that his award was no longer recognised by the organisation.

Body's first composing efforts as a child were re-composing his prescribed Royal Schools exercises and performing them at end-of-year piano recitals in the local church hall.

While studying at the University of Auckland, Body also took organ lessons with Peter Godfrey and sang in the choir of St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral, Parnell.

[7] After graduating his BMus with first class Honours, Body began his Masters of Music in 1966, studying composition with Ron Tremain in his first year and Robin Maconie in his second.

[7] An Arts Council Grant in 1969 enabled Body to travel to Cologne to study at Mauricio Kagel's Ferienkurse für Neue Musik.

Returning home in 1970 via travels through Greece, North India, and Jakarta sparked Body's lifelong fascination with non-Western musical traditions.

[7] On his return to New Zealand, Body took up a teaching position at Tawa College in Wellington, but resigned after one year to focus on freelance composition projects.

Body travelled to Bali and Java for four months in 1974, after which the Akademi Musik Indonesia in Yogyakarta (now in the Indonesian Arts Institute), invited him to return in 1976 as a guest lecturer.

1980 saw the retirement of Douglas Lilburn as composition professor at Victoria University (now the New Zealand School of Music); Body applied for and was offered the position.

With a libretto co-written with Geoff Chapple, Alley's biographer, the opera featured Gansu folk singers Ji Zheng-Zhu and Li Gui-Zhou, Beijing's Huaxia Chamber Ensemble, and a small orchestra of New Zealand musicians.

A last-minute funding cut left the opera in perilous straits, but an eleventh-hour fundraising effort by Body and Chapple secured its performance.

Body's music-theatre piece Songs & Dances of Desire (2013), written while Auckland Philharmonia Composer-in-Residence, is based on the life of Carmen Rupe, an anti-discrimination and AIDS activist as well as the first Māori drag performer.

Loosely inspired by John Cage's Musicircus, the 6-hour-plus event featured New Zealand music performed across eight different venues within the Victoria University Student Union building.

[17][18] In late 1974 Body assisted ethnomusicologist Allan Thomas in bringing from Cirebon, West Java to New Zealand the country's first set of gamelan.

[11] He promoted New Zealand music in the international sphere, serving for many years on the executive committee of the Asian Composers' League (ACL).

[23] In October 2020, a number of former students at the New Zealand School of Music reported being sexually assaulted by Body, after being asked by Victoria University to consider donating to a memorial fund in his name.

The university said that it planned to work with survivors to design a restorative justice process, which could involve formal apologies, compensation and policy changes.