John Potter
Biography
Dr John Potter was a chorister at King's College Cambridge, music scholar at King's School Canterbury and choral exhibitioner at Gonville & Caius Cambridge. His early career included work with the BBC Singers and Swingle II. He was also a founder member of the avant-garde ensemble Electric Phoenix. Dr Potter was a member of the Hilliard Ensemble from 1984 to 2001 and has enjoyed a long association with ECM Records' Manfred Eicher. He has also performed and recorded with the Who, Mike Oldfield, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Manfred Mann's Earthband and more recently the jazz musicans Jan Garbarek, Peter Erskine, Barry Guy and John Surman.
As a member of faculty at the University of York since 1988, Dr Potter has continued to combine his career as a singer with teaching and research work. He currently performs with an experimental ensemble, Red Byrd, which he formed with Richard Wistreich in 1989 . Dr Potter also teaches many of the vocal ensembles at the University of York as well as coaching ensembles across Europe and chairing the jury for the contest for ensembles at the Tampere International Choir Festival (Finland).
His thesis formed the basis for Vocal Authority, (CUP 1988) and he subsequently went on to edit The Cambridge Companion to Singing (CUP 2000). Currently he is working on The Cambridge History of Singing and a Handbook on a cappella ensemble singing with Swedish jazz singer Ander Jalkéus. Dr Potter has recently been awarded an Edison Fellowship to enable him to continue his work on portamento at the National Sound Archive during 2003.