John Hennecken

John Hennecken (b. 1987) is an American composer and educator based in Athens, GA. His music has been performed in the United States, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Japan by ensembles such as Symphony Orchestra Augusta, Takarazuka City Symphony Orchestra, Georgia Southern Symphony, Mercer-Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra, Atlanta Wind Symphony, Wet Ink Ensemble, New Ear Contemporary Music Ensemble, Terminus Ensemble, Mercer University Faculty Brass Quintet, Bulldog Brass Quintet, Max Noah Singers, Cecilia Ensemble of Augusta, and the Trombones of the St. Louis Symphony. He has worked with conductors Shizuo Z. Kuwahara, Adrian Gnam, Cliff Towner, Jennifer Morgan Flory, Jaclyn Hartenberger, and Amy Wilson. Hennecken is also Composer in Residence with the MOD[ular] Ensemble, a chamber group dedicated to new music.

Select honors and awards include Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, New Music on the Bayou Summer Festival Concert Selection, Morton Gould Young Composers Award Finalist, Joliet Symphony Orchestra Competition Third Prize, International Trumpet Guild New Music Concert Selection, American Prize Semifinalist in orchestral, chamber, and choral music, Olin Parker Composition Competition Winner, and Southeastern Composers League Philip Slates Memorial Composition Contest Winner. Hennecken’s music has been recorded under the EMPiRES label and broadcasted on Georgia Public Radio.

Hennecken earned his D.M.A. at the University of Georgia where he was a recipient of the John Corina Scholarship for Music Composition. His principal teachers have been Adrian P. Childs, Leonard V. Ball Jr., and Douglas O’Grady. Hennecken has also attended the European American Musical Alliance summer program at La Schola Cantorum in Paris, France, where he studied with Phillip Lasser and David Conte. He has participated in composition masterclasses with Steven Stucky, Chen Yi, Claude Baker, and Carter Pann. Hennecken has taught at both the University of Georgia and Georgia College and State University (current as of May 2016).

Compositions