John Gardner was born in Manchester and educated at Wellington College and Oxford University. After 6 years in the RAF, he joined the music staff of the Royal Opera House, leaving at the end of 1952 to pursue a freelance career as composer, teacher, pianist, and conductor.He has composed three symphonies, several large-scale cantatas, four operas, and a great variety of ensemble, solo and choral music as well as theatre music for the Old Vic and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford.

John Gardner was born in Manchester and educated at Wellington College and Oxford University. After 6 years in the RAF, he joined the music staff of the Royal Opera House, leaving at the end of 1952 to pursue a freelance career as composer, teacher, pianist, and conductor.He has composed three symphonies, several large-scale cantatas, four operas, and a great variety of ensemble, solo and choral music as well as theatre music for the Old Vic and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford.

John Gardner was born in Manchester and educated at Wellington College and Oxford University. After 6 years in the RAF, he joined the music staff of the Royal Opera House, leaving at the end of 1952 to pursue a freelance career as composer, teacher, pianist, and conductor.He has composed three symphonies, several large-scale cantatas, four operas, and a great variety of ensemble, solo and choral music as well as theatre music for the Old Vic and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford.