A young composer whose compositional work has been described as “a great spiritual experience,” John Baxter seeks to explore the tense and mercurial chasm between musician and listener. After his time as an undergrad at Yale University, John pursued a degree in film scoring at NYU. He is currently a doctoral candidate in composition at the Frost School of Music. He has scored more than 45 projects including feature films from around the world. He stays an active member of the new music community, often exploring the pathos of the late romantic period through the paradigm of new techniques and complexity.

What I Teach

I teach two main courses: Composition/Orchestration and Film and Media Scoring. Each course will dive into the theory of composition, but one will be for the concert stage and one will be for the movie screens. In Composition/Orchestration, I will discuss the current world of composers, philosophy behind music creation, working with an orchestra, harmonic theory and voice-leading, and notation. In Film and Media Scoring, we will discuss the business of scoring for media, the types of media out there, stock music libraries, sound production, harmonic story-telling, and contracts. Both courses will have a workshop quality in which students will present their composition assignments and the instructor will go in-depth to discuss the details. I will not be an instructor to force you into a particular style. Rather I will take your imagination and creativity and show you the best ways to manifest it into reality.

Courses

Mini Master Class Monthly

Mini Master Class Bi-Monthly