SUNY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE PROFESSOR EMERITUS

JOHN LINDSEY is an American violinist and educator. He attended the University of Illinois for his violin performance degrees. Mr. Lindsey had several well-known violin teachers including Paul Rolland, Endre Granat, Eduard Melkus, John Dalley, and two former full-time pupils of Leopold Auer, Ruth Ray and Ilza Niemack. During his professional teaching career spanning nearly 50 years, Mr. Lindsey held full-time teaching positions in the Dallas (TX) Public Schools, Baylor University, (as Chairman of Strings for 3 years), and the University of Kentucky, (as String Chairman for 6 years). 

In 1981, John Lindsey joined the violin faculty at the internationally known Crane School of Music and retired in 2016 (having served as String Chairman for 15 years). In the spring of 2009, Mr. Lindsey attained the highest rank for a faculty member in the State University of New York System, the SUNY Distinguished Service Professorship. At the time, he was one of only two Crane faculty to have ever received a Distinguished Professor award. In 1993, John was awarded the SUNY Potsdam President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and, in 2003, the prestigious State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1973, he was presented with the annual Mozart Award at Wilkes College (now King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA). Mr. Lindsey was recognized by the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England, with the 2003 International Musician of the Year Award and the Mozart Award for Musical Achievement in the fall of 2008. He was also a member of the Distinguished Research Council of the International Biographical Centre. In July, 2018, he was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. All told, he is listed in 17 American and International biographies. In 1988, Mr. Lindsey was selected from over 200 arts applicants as the winner of the city of Dayton, Ohio’s, 3rd annual one-month Allegro Residency for the Arts for 1989.

Mr. Lindsey has also achieved wide recognition as a concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician. A dedicated ensemble artist, John has been first violinist of the Lexington String Quartet (KY), the Concord Piano Trio (KY), the Quartetto da Camera (KY), NUMA (New and Unusual Music Artists in NY), the Aurora String Quintet (NY & MI), the Ruggieri Chamber Soloists (VT & NH), the Potsdam Piano Quartet (NY), and the JSK String Trio (VT, MA, & NY). He is the Founding Concertmaster of both the Orchestra of Northern New York since its founding in 1988 and the ELEVA Chamber Players, a Vermont string orchestra without a conductor founded in 2006 (he retired in 2023). In the past, he served as the Concertmaster of the Lexington (KY) Philharmonic Orchestra, the Warren (OH) Chamber Orchestra, the Champlain Valley Symphony Orchestra (NY), the 1994 Castle Farm Festival Orchestra (MI), for two years at the Belleayre Summer Festival Orchestra (NY), and the Hanover (NH) Chamber Orchestra, a post he held for 18 years. From 1981-1995, John was the Associate Concertmaster of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. John took part in the founding of the Danville-Centre College Orchestra (KY) as Conductor and Music Director from 1979 to 1981 (when he left for his position at Crane).  John has been featured as violin soloist with orchestras on numerous occasions, having performed concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Sibelius, Bartok 2nd, and Lou Harrison (3 times). He also performed as the violin soloist in the Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending, the 2 Bartok Rhapsodies, the Ravel Tzigane (3 times) and "Winter" from the Four Seasons in Tryavna, Bulgaria.

John Lindsey was the Co-Concertmaster of the Dallas (TX) Chamber Orchestra, which toured Israel and Jordan with a chorus performing the Corelli Christmas Concerto and the Handel Messiah in late 1972-1973. On Christmas Eve, 1972, a performance was held in the Church of the Annunciation, the traditional site where the angel Gabriel informed Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. The final concert of the tour was a command performance given at the Cultural Palace in Amman for His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, his Queen of 2 weeks, and his special guest American astronaut James Irwin (the 8th man to walk on the moon).

Mr. Lindsey has presented solo violin recitals in many locations locally, in America, and abroad. Among these are New York City’s Carnegie Recital Hall (twice) and Bruno Walter Auditorium in Lincoln Center (five times) and the Museum of the City of New York as well as in Montreal, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Lake Placid, at the French Library of Boston in 1988, and in Chicago in 1985 on the Dame Myra Hess Series at the gorgeous foyer of the Old Chicago Public Library. He also has presented recitals in France in 1989, China in 2011, and on a 2015 five concert tour of Thailand.   

In the spirit of his teacher and gifted pedagogue, Paul Rolland, Professor Lindsey has presented numerous master classes in many locations. He was a violin instructor in the very first National String Project under Paul Rolland at the University of Illinois from 1968-1971. From 1971-1982, he taught at the Governor’s School of North Carolina, an eight- week summer program for gifted and talented high school students sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Education. John is himself a member of the Triple Nine Society, which is limited to those with an IQ score of 150 or above. Since 1994, he has been heavily involved in a variety of capacities involving the founding and special nurturing of the string program for the St. Lucia School of Music on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. In June of 2011, Professor Lindsey gave a violin recital and a series of master classes at the Shenyang Conservatory in Shenyang, The People’s Republic of China. He served as faculty and first violins coach of the Columbia National Youth Orchestra’s one-week orchestral retreat in January of 2013 in Santa Marta, Colombia.

John Lindsey has shared his expertise and musical insights with gifted students and other musicians from around the world while serving on the summer faculties of the renowned National Music Camp (now known as the Interlochen Arts Camp) in Michigan from 1983-86, the Adult Chamber Music Conference at Interlochen for 30 years (1983-2012), the Ithaca Chamber Music Institute (NY) for 21 years (1987-2007), the 1988 Stage de Musique in Marcillat-en-Combraille (France), the 1989 Skaneateles Festival (NY), the Manitou Music Festival (MI) for 13 years (1989-2001), the 1991 Ottawa (KS) Suzuki Institute, the 1992 Southeastern Music Camp (GA), the Mozart Festival in Woodstock, Vermont, for 24 years (1998-2021), the 2000 Incontri di Canna International Music Festival in Canna, Italy, the Ameropa Festival in downtown Prague in the Czech Republic for 5 years during the period of 2004-2011, twice at the 2006 and 2008 Illinois Summer Youth Chamber Music Camps in Bloomington, (IL) at Illinois Wesleyan University, the 2008 Bulgaria International Festival and Tour based in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and the 2014 Vianden Festival at Vianden Castle in Luxembourg.

John and his wife Amornrat (as Manager and CEO) were sole proprietors of a unique bed and breakfast in Potsdam, NY, The Siam Classic Inn and Spa. It was the first and only Thai style B & B in all of North America. They received the prestigious International Lux Media Group Award (from England) as the World’s Best Luxury Bed and Breakfast/Spa for the year 2015. For that year the Lindseys received the only hospitality award in any category from any of the 48 contiguous US states.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

His CD album of violin music for early education purposes was released in August of 2020 and is available on Amazon and ITunes.

June 2018 – Please do not edit without permission