John Rot
John Rot is a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher based in New York City. His work challenges established standards of musical form and rhythm, employing unique conceptualizations of division and simultaneity to suggest new approaches to music’s most important parameter: duration. His music has been performed by the JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Tak Ensemble, Ensemble Court-Circuit, loadbang, andPlay duo, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and a number of soloists across the country specializing in the performance of new music.
As a pianist, John has competed and performed both nationally and internationally. He has performed as concerto soloist with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (Illinois’s three-time “Orchestra of the Year”) and in the Gala Concert of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. He placed first in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition open senior division, and has been a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth concerto competition and a semifinalist in the Oberlin International Piano Competition. He maintains an avid interest in pedagogy, and has worked with many private composition students over the last several years, in addition to teaching classes at Columbia University, Montclaire State University, and Oberlin Conservatory. He has collaborated with Elgin-based nonprofit Hamilton Wings for eight years on the SCORE! (Students Creating Opera to Reinforce Education) program, in which young students create, produce, and perform an original opera.
John completed his undergraduate training at Oberlin Conservatory, where he received the Walter E. Aschaffenburg prize, the top award for outstanding music composition. He has studied composition with Fred Lerdahl, Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, Reiko Füting, Lewis Nielson, and Josh Levine.