John Cornelius

1966 -

About

John Cornelius (b. 1966), is a member of ASCAP whose works are garnering increasingly frequent performances throughout the United States. He is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and received his B. M. in Piano Performance from Jackson State University, a M. M. in Piano from Washington University in St. Louis and his M. M. and D. M. A. in Composition from Rice University. Cornelius’s output includes a number of chamber works, orchestral works, and song cycles. Having been the music director/arranger/composer for a number of theaters including the Great Caruso, the Ensemble Theater, Adventure Theater in Glen Echo Park, Main Street Theatre and Theater Under the Stars’ Humphries School, he has also written, along with his collaborator Michael J. Bobbitt, several works for the lyric theater including Mirandy and Brother Wind, Say It Ain’t So!, The Yellow Rose of Texas and his latest, an adaptation of the Negro Baseball League classic, Bingo Long and his Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. He was featured at a number of Prelude Festivals at the Kennedy Center and has received a commission from the Smithsonian Institute, Going the Distance, a children’s musical about the lives and careers of Wilma Rudolph and Jesse Owens. Of his chamber works, Charles Ward in the Houston Chronicle wrote, “The highlight…was a set of three spirituals arranged for tenor and string orchestra by composer John Cornelius. In O Fix Me, the juxtaposition of an elegant, long melody floating over a sharp, jazzy string riff was electric.” His most recent works include Chansons Creoles, a song cycle whose text is by gens de colour of 19th-century Louisiana and Sonata of Attitudes for 2 Horns and Piano.  Dr. Cornelius is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and received his D. M. A. in Composition from Rice University.

Related Information

http://www.pvamu.edu/music-theatre/music/faculty-staff/john-l-cornelius-ii/, https://www.reverbnation.com/artist_2225820/bio

Works by John Cornelius