Ensemble Bios

John Gzowski

“While most theatre composer/musicians are heard but not seen, Gzowski is often an integral part of a production, working in ensemble fashion with actors and playing everything from traditional eastern and western instruments to various pieces of kitchen equipment.”  – Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine

Mr John Gzowski returns to the Shaw Festival this season as the composer and sound designer for Misalliance and His Girl Friday. His past Shaw credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Age of Arousal, An Ideal Husband, Brief Encounters, The Little Foxes (composer/sound design) and Lillian Groag’s The Magic Fire (sound design).

As a sound designer and composer for theatre, John’s credits include ’Night, Mother, American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Leaving Home, Fool for Love, Hamlet, Happy Days, No Man’s Land (Soulpepper Theatre Company); St. Christopher, The Doll House, Coyote Ugly (DVxT Theatre); Lynndie England, Hedda Gabler, Arabian Night, Transformation, Two Words for Snow, Weather (Volcano Theatre); Touch the Sky, Blue Planet (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People); The Ride Down Mount Morgan (Birdland Theatre); East of Berlin, The Fall, Private Jokes Public Places, Capture Me, Well, I Claudia, Motel Helene (Tarragon Theatre); Clean House, Palace of the End, The Pillowman, Indian Ink, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie (The Canadian Stage Company); Belle, Down Dangerous Passes Road, Glace Bay Miner’s Museum (Factory Theatre); As You Like It (Resurgence Theatre); Smudge (Nightwood Theatre); How Could You Mrs Dick (Theatre Aquarius).

John has worked extensively in modern dance, composed new music and studied world music. He has toured North America and Europe with jazz and world music groups and has recorded extensively. Nominated for twelve Dora Awards (he won five of them), he is the recipient of the Freddie Stone Award (2002), Golden Sheaf Award (2005) and a Juno nomination with Maza Meze. He spent two years as Co-Artistic Director of the Music Gallery. John is also an instrument maker and guitarist.