John Abram is an Anglo

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 best known for his work with electroacoustic

Electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...

 music.

Born in England, Abram became interested in music when he was six; he began composing in his teenage years. He took composition lessons with Roger Marsh and Peter Dickinson

Peter Dickinson

Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE is an English author and poet who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.-Life and work:...

 at Keele University

Keele University

Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...

, also studying the recorder

Recorder

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

 with Alan Davis

Alan Davis

Alan Davis is an English writer and artist of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.-UK work:...

; since that time he has also studied composition with Vic Hoyland

Vic Hoyland

Vic Hoyland is an English composer.He was born in Wombwell, Yorkshire, England.Educated at Hull and York universities , Hoyland was Haywood Fellow at the University of Birmingham where he is currently Reader in Composition.Influenced by Luciano Berio and Franco Donatoni, Hoyland has composed...

, Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...

, and Boguslav Schäffer. Abram graduated in 1980 with a bachelor of science degree, earning his master's in composition in 1982. Upon leaving school, he moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he helped found the new music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

 ensemble George W. Welch.

In 1984 Abram was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship

Commonwealth Scholarship

The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.-History:...

. This allowed him to travel to the University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

 in Canada, where he studied composition with Rudolf Komorous

Rudolf Komorous

Rudolf Komorous is a Canadian composer. His works includue Twenty-Three Poems about Horses , based on the poetry of Li Ho, the opera No no miya which uses elements of Noh theatre and the Li Ch’ing Chao Madrigals .-References:...

 and electroacoustic music with Doug Collinge. For his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

, he composed an anti-opera based on The Aeneid. In addition, he directed the music school's Collegium Musicum for two years and taught composition for one. He was granted awards from the college in 1985 and 1987. From 1986 to 1988 he served as the associate director and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 of the Open Space Gallery's Open Space New Music Series in Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

. He lived and worked in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 from 1989 to 1994, performing with numerous new music ensembles, co-founding The Drystone Orchestra, and becoming a member of ARCANA. Abram created INFINITE MUSIC, a software program for composing and performing in real time, from 1993 to 1996. He wrote numerous pieces using the software, which generates material from analysis of MIDI input, either live or pre-recorded.

Abram moved to Calgary, Alberta in 1994, and has since been acrive in the recording industry and as a teacher; currently, he serves as technology coordinator for the conservatory of music at Mount Royal University. In 1997 he was nominated for an AMPIA award for the soundtrack to the short film The Skating Party.
In addition, he has received commission grants from the Canada Council

Canada Council

The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...

, the Laidlaw Foundation

Laidlaw Foundation

The Laidlaw Foundation is a Canadian charitable foundation based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1949 by Robert A. Laidlaw, the institution was established with the purpose of providing financial support for charitable, conservation, educational, and cultural organizations in the Ontario region...

, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts is a crown agency of the Government of Alberta. As the primary arts funding body in Alberta, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts helps to unleash the potential of every artist...

, and the Ontario Arts Council

Ontario Arts Council

The Ontario Arts Council is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to promote and assist the development of the arts for the enjoyment and benefit of all Ontarians...

.

Abram's work is recorded on the Six-Sided and ARTIFACT

Artifact

- Objects :*Artifact , an object formed by humans, particularly one of interest to archaeologists*Artifact , one of many kinds of tangible byproducts produced during the development of software...

labels.