John Wakefield’s performing experience as a percussionist, and his application of his knowledge of music are as varied as his interests. He studied music and received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Maryland, graduating Cum Laude and winning the Homer Ulrich concerto competition during his senior year. John then received a scholarship to the University of Southern California where he was a member of their graduate program, studying with veteran studio percussionist Ken Watson. While in Los Angeles John took advantage of the wealth recording musicians living there and studied for years with the legendary percussionist Luis Conte.

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John has been performing professionally in Los Angeles since 1991. He is the Principle Percussionist with Opera Santa Barbara and the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra, and performs regularly with Los Angeles Opera and the Pasadena Symphony. John also can be heard on film scores including Frozen, Peanuts, Transformers and First Man, and video games including World of Warcraft.

During his career John has held the Principle Percussion chair with the Santa Barbara Symphony and has performed with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Dance at the Music Center, the New West Symphony, and in many musical theater productions including the Schubert theater’s production of Ragtime and the Pasadena Playhouse premiere of Sister Act.

His expertise in Latin/Afro-Cuban percussion has led to recording and touring with various recording artists including David Arkenstone, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Crawford, Delaney Bramlett, Sadie Van, Omar Torrez and various Windham Hill artists. Recently John has been using his expertise and experiences in music to craft a mental and physical agility training protocol that he first began using with professional boxers, but has now branched out to athletes in other sports. He has just finished writing a book on this training protocol that is due to be published later this year.