John Metcalf was born in Swansea in 1946, and spent his childhood on the Gower Peninsula, at Reynoldston and Penmaen.
In 1986 he moved to Canada, to teach on the Music Theatre course at the Banff Centre in Alberta.
He is artistic director of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, and also teaches at the annual MusicFest Aberystwyth.
In 2012 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year honours, for services to music.
(Excerpts from Paradise Haunts were used as part of the Queensland Ballet Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.)