John M Gonzalez . . . . . . .Composer

John started playing accordion when he was seven years old. At age 12 John's mother signed him up to play in the school band , not knowing there were no accordions in the band. Under the tutelage of Robert Downs, his music teacher, John learned to play the Baritone horn in the Jr High concert and later trombone in the school Jazz ensemble. Robert Downs , John's band instructor had extensive experience with name big bands in the late 40's and early fifties and John learned classic big band charts that were popular in the big band era. In High school John added French Horn and still under the guidance of Robert Downs continued in the Hart High Jazz ensemble The Jazz ensemble won many competitions and was a finalist in the HOLLYWOOD BOWL Battle of the Bands. John also started playing gigs with his instructor Robert Downs who was probably the most influential person in John choosing his vocation.

John attended Cal State Northridge where he initially started playing trombone in the Jazz ensemble and later switched to Electric bass . John also took music theory classes at this time. A member of the Jazz ensemble offered John work as a bassist at a west side club and John took him up on the offer. Soon they were playing 4 nights a week and got an offer to go on a tour of some major hotels in the southwest. The group took it and John put school on hold. This started road work with a number of groups and in some groups John played bass, keyboard and horns. John toured though many states as well as Canada and the Bahamas.

A few years later John attended the Dick Grove Music Academy and started working in groups that played in the L.A. and Orange County area. Opportunities to do recording work for various media presented themselves and John began composing and recording original music. In the mid eighties John started scoring low budget films. John decided to further his education in composition and attended the UCLA Film Composition program. He learned from scoring veterans like Gerald Fried ( "Man From U.N.C.L.E.", "Star Trek", "Gilligan's Island") and the late Don Ray. John has scored over 50 films as well as infomercials, animation series and a variety of visual media.