John Korsrud

Korsrud’s music has “a gleeful, disruptive streak, resulting in works that are not only dazzlingly brilliant, but also mischievously good fun.
Jazz Times

John Korsrud is a composer, producer and trumpet player based in Vancouver, Canada. He is the leader and principal composer of the 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, a jazz/ new music ensemble he formed in 1990. HRO has toured across Canada several times, to Europe, and released four CDs.

As a composer, John performed on his own trumpet concerto, Come to the Dark Side, at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2010, commissioned and performed by The American Composers Orchestra. John has also been commissioned by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The CBC Radio Orchestra, the Albany Symphony New Music Festival, and several Dutch ensembles. His documentary scores have earned him Leo and Golden Sheaf Awards and a Gemini Nomination.

John has produced many large multi-media extravaganzas such The Ice Age: The World’s First New Music Ice Show for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In 2005 CBC Television produced a 60-minute, commercial-free, nationally-televised “Cantata for the King” for their program “Opening Night”.

John is the recipient of the 2015 Canada Council Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award, and studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the Netherlands from 1995 to 1997.

This page was last updated in November 2021.