John Mills-Cockell
| John Mills-Cockell | |
|---|---|
John Mills-Cockell
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Mills-Cockell |
| Born |
19 May 1943 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Electronic, rock, film and television scores, opera, theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
| Instruments | Multiple |
| Years active | 1963-present |
| Labels | True North, Alga Marghen, RVNG Intl. |
| Associated acts | Intersystems, Syrinx |
| Website | www.johnmillscockell.ca |
| Notable instruments | |
| Moog Synthesizer, ARP 2500 | |
John Mills-Cockell (born 19 May 1943) is a Canadian composer and multi-instrumentalist, perhaps best known for his ground-breaking work with progressive / avant garde Canadian groups Intersystems and Syrinx, and for his numerous works for radio, television, film, ballet, and stage.
Mills-Cockell was one of the earliest adopters of the Moog synthesizer, and is generally regarded as a pioneer in the field of electronic music.
Mills-Cockell was born in Toronto. His mother passed away when he was 6 months old. His father, whose work often required him to spend extended time overseas, found it necessary to place Mills-Cockell in an orphanage for a time shortly thereafter. Eventually, Mills-Cockell’s father remarried and the family was reunited. Mills-Cockell has two younger brothers.
Mills-Cockell was introduced to music at the age of 5, when his father, a devoted amateur musician and choir singer, encouraged him to join a church choir. At the age of fifteen, he heard his first piece of electronic music and found himself "hooked."
Mills-Cockell studied music at the University of Toronto from 1963 to 1967.
He studied piano under John Coveart, and composition under Dr. Samuel Dolin, at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto from 1964 to 1968, where he also taught electronic music.
He undertook graduate studies under Gustav Ciamaga at the University of Toronto’s Electronic Music Studio in 1967 and 1968.
In Toronto in the fall of 1967, Mills-Cockell joined forces with light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and architect Dik Zander to form Intersystems, an arts collective and multimedia performance group. Intersystems’ multimedia presentations were a classification-defying juxtaposition of Mills-Cockell’s music, Hayden’s light shows, Parker’s spoken-word poetry readings, with Zander’s engineering skills underlying the construction of the presentations.
Intersystems performed extensively in Canada and the US, including in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York City, Pittsburgh, and, at the invitation of Buckminster Fuller, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
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