John Dawkins (who is British) read music at Reading University where he studied piano with Eric Parkin and conducting with Brian Fawcett.
In 1991, three years after arriving in France, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Françoise Legrand male voice choir, and in 1996 became the conductor of the Mélo'men choir, where his artistic talents and teaching ability soon bore fruit with first prize in the Île de France "Coups de Choeurs" competition, and later in 2006 won them the silver medal in the choirs competition at the Outgames in Montreal.
In 2002 he helped set up the Rainbow Symphony Orchestra. Under his direction, the group plays both standard repertoire and more rarely performed works.
Since 2005 he has also been teaching English diction for "Le jeune choeur de Paris" at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris. At the same time John has a busy life as a composer and piano accompanist.