Article written by Victoria Whiteland."John Metcalf has acquired an international reputation for his wonderful compositions which have been performed in many countries.
He is the Artistic Director of the award-winning Vale of Glamorgan Festival and also of the Swansea Festival.
He is a classical composer living and working in Lampeter, Ceredigion.
In 1995 he received the John Edwards Memorial Award for his services to music in Wales, presented by the Guild for the Promotion of Welsh Music.
2006 was the year of his 60th Birthday, concerts and celebrations were held in the town of Lampeter, also Cardiff, and London.
"A Chair in Love" John's 6th opera premiered in Swansea at the Taliesin Arts Centre and went on to Ireland and Montreal, where it was received with great acclaim.
Truly evocative, his music speaks from the heart about his home-land and the tranquillity John finds in living here with his family.
Immersed as much as possible in his own writing, he is none the less an active and valued contributor to the life of the community, helping to bring an awareness of the importance of music to thousands of children; John's Creative Music projects have taken place at more than one hundred schools in Wales.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Lampeter and also of the Royal College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.
He has created music for the Welsh National Opera and his composition "Mapping Wales (Endless Song)" was commissioned by Lampeter Music Club to celebrate the Millennium.
An associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and a Canadian joint citizen with the U.K., John was Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director at the Banff Centre in Canada for almost 10 years.
His collaboration with the artist Catrin Webster
was previewed in Rome and performed at the New York Festival.
John has created work for the English Symphony Orchestra, and in 2005 he was the featured composer at the Waterford New Music Days in Ireland.
A song cycle for Jeremy Huw Williams was commissioned by the BBC to be premiered at St. David's Hall, Cardiff as part of John's birthday year concerts.
A happy moment came in 1999 when John's music was chosen to be played as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth signed the Act for Wales' first elected Assembly Government."
