John Ling is a drummer, percussionist, and composer from Las Vegas, Nevada, currently based in Port Jefferson, New York. He is a founding member of new music cello and percussion duo hear|say, and appeared as a soloist in Spectrum’s Rzewski at 80 Festival, where he performed Rzewski’s percussion monodrama The Fall of the Empire. John’s concert music has been commissioned and performed by Yarn/Wire, Double Standard, Ensemble Decipher, F-Plus, Spark Duo, and hear|say. Also a writer, John has published poems and stories in ONE ART, HOOT Review, and Rust + Moth, and written program notes for the New York New Music Ensemble.
John holds a BM in music performance from Arizona State University and an MM in performance from SUNY Stony Brook, where he is currently working toward a DMA in performance and an MA in composition. He has studied percussion with Eduardo Leandro, Simone Mancuso, Mark Sunkett, Shaun Tilburg, and J.B. Smith, drum set and improvisation with Dan Weiss, Marcus Gilmore, Ari Hoenig, Ray Anderson, and Dom Moio, and compositionwith Margaret Schedel, Matt Barnson, Dan Weymouth, Nirmali Fenn, and Daria Semegen. John also teaches percussion and music theory in various secondary programs, and is a frequent member of the house band at The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, New York.