An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he was a founding member of ARRAYMUSIC, an organization which premiered several of his compositions.
Finding the accordion increasingly unsatisfactory as a means of exploring classical music he decided to learn to play the piano.
In 1964, while working as a laboratory technician for Firestone, he began studying music privately with Lorne Betts in the city of Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1973 he participated in the Composers Conference at Johnson State College, Vermont, and the Gaudeamus Music Week in the Netherlands.
In 1976 John submitted his string quartet, Concerto a Quattro, directly to the ISCM and it was chosen by the organization for performance in Boston, Massachusetts.