john andrew

wilhite

John Andrew Wilhite is an Oslo-based composer, double bassist, and sound artist.

His compositions and arrangements have been performed at series and festivals such as Barents Spektakel, Sacred Realism, METEOR, and the Ultima Festival. Often working with large-scale and interdisciplinary projects, he is a recipient of a comission from The Norwegian National Opera, Norwegian Center for Technology in Art and Music, and was a featured artist at Nordic Arts Lab. Recent premiers include the floating performance-installation "Cod Connection" at Only Connect 2022 at the Munch Museum, and Kunngjøringer fra pariserkommunen at the Norwegian National Opera. His most recent work, Bristol Silence, recieved national media attention for its exploration of themes surrounding the political significances of music, specifically illuminating the complex, problematic history of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Read an in depth interview with John Andrew here.

As a performer, John Andrew works regularly with artists such as Elliott Sharp, and the Andreas Røysum Ensemble. A regular guest at festivals for both jazz and contemporary music, this years engagments include ArteActs (AU), Moers Festival (DE), Oslo Jazz Festival (NO), and Östersjöfestivalen (SE), and he was recently a soloist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Since 2018, John Andrew has lead the project Torsketromming with scientist Rebekah Oomen. Their work recording, studying, and making music together with cod fish is changing how we view the music of fish, and how we can help rekindle dwindling cod populations. Read an in depth article here.

John Andrew is holds Masters degrees in both double bass performance and composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with Håkon Thelin (bass), and Trond Reinholdtsen (composition). His projects focused on the music of Stefano Scodanibbio and Håkon Thelin.

John Andrew also has a degree in Music Composition from Reed College (Portland, Oregon), where he studied with David Schiff.

He studied at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (New York) as a pupil of Reggie Workman. .

John Andrew studied Slavic art and philosophy. He worked for philosopher Boris Groys at NYU and was research assistant to Evgenii Berstein at Reed College.