This is a network of websites maintained by John Crooks.

email: john@jcrooks.com
curriculum vitae

I connect music, technology, and pedagogy using custom software, instructional design, scholarship, and creative/improvisational methodologies. I work with educational institutions, musicians, and composers to develop innovative tools for making and teaching music in the digital domain.

I studied music at NYU and received real-world training as a bassist on the jazz and Broadway scenes in New York City. As a creative musician I collaborate in ensembles, tour the US, and have recorded 5 albums as a leader or co-leader in New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles.

Since 2007 I have been involved with higher education in music and digital media with a special focus on technology-in-education and progressive approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. In 2009 I was one of the first graduates of The University of California, Irvine’s MFA Program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology.

In 2008 I started programming custom applications for live music, including improvising, interactive and algorithmic human-computer performance. I have also taken a special interest in digital pedagogy, with a focus on higher education. In 2011 I was awarded the Video/Multimedia Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence through the OpenCourseWare Consortium at MIT. Creative work and teaching are cooperative forces in my life; both as a musician and as a teacher my recent work has sought to integrate technological and improvisational processes. I am deeply inspired by the creative innovations of jazz and blues musicians, whose progressive ideas are embedded in the technologically mediated society we live in today.