John Hennecken is a classical composer whose music has been performed all over the world. With influences ranging from Mozart to M83, his music fuses classical clarity of form and intricate counterpoint with modern approaches to tonality and timbre. He composes for orchestra, wind band, chamber ensembles, soloists, and choir.

Hennecken has composed three symphonies. Most recently, Seong-Kyung Graham and the Civic Symphony of Green Bay commissioned and premiered King Arthur: Lion in the Wilderness, a sacred symphony for orchestra, children’s choir, and narrator intended for young audience concerts. The symphony tells of Arthur’s journey both worldly and spiritual – his difficult path to Camelot parallels his journey to Christ. While the narrations tell the story of Arthur’s quest, the choral music features Catholic Latin texts that evoke Arthur’s interaction with the divine. Symphony for the Great Return was premiered in 2022 by Elliot Moore and the Longmont Symphony Orchestra (Colorado). The work was nominated by the LSO for the Pulitzer Prize. Symphony for the Garden City was premiered by the Augusta Symphony and would go on to be a finalist in the 2019 American Prize competition. Hennecken has also written a concert overture entitled Golden Midnight Blue, which was premiered by Kevin Sütterlin and the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra in 2023. His first orchestral commission was in 2014, when conductor Shizuo Z. Kuwahara led performances of Everything Beautiful in Its Time with both the Takarazuka City Symphony Orchestra in Japan and the Augusta Symphony in the U.S. Commissioned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the two cities. The work would go on to win recognition from the Morton Gould Young Composers Awards.

Hennecken is currently writing Cantata for the Divine Hours, a work commissioned by St. Norbert Abbey Church. The multi-movement cantata for soprano soloist Yi-lan Niu, organ, string quartet, and choir will feature settings of Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, Salve Regina, Te Deum, and Benedictus Dominus Deus Meus. His most recent choral work, Holy Spirit: Living and Life Giving (SSA), was inspired by Hildegard of Bingen’s chant of the same name as well as biblical texts from the books of Genesis and Revelation. Commissioned with a grant from the Howard-Suamico Education Foundation, the piece was premiered by the Bay Port High School Choir in 2023. 

Starting out as a trumpet player, Hennecken has written many works for brass. Most recently, Christopher Probst and Matthew Jordan of Jacksonville State University led an international consortium to commission and premiere Sunset City, a work inspired by selected verses from the psalms and canticles of Catholic Vespers (evening prayer). The St. Louis Trombones recorded his quartet, Diasphere, on their 2023 album, entitled Confluence. The quartet performed the work on a national tour that culminated with the International Trombone Festival. His most recent trombone solo, The Winds of Destiny, was commissioned by Jessica Butler and a national consortium of 13 players. Recorded by Christopher Leslie of the West Point Band, his Sonata for Euphonium won the 2016 Harvey Phillips award from the International Tuba Euphonium Association and is published by Potenza Music. Hennecken’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was showcased by Brandon Craswell at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, and his Brass Quintet won the 2012 Philip Slates Memorial Composition Contest. 

His works for winds and percussion are published by Murphy Music Press. Based on Dino Buzzati’s 1940 novel,  The Tartar Steppe was premiered in 2023 by Andy Mast and the Lawrence Conservatory Wind Ensemble. In 2019, he composed Railway Nocturne, a work inspired by Polish Artist Marta Zamarska’s Railway Nocturne IV and premiered by Jose Riojas and the University of Chicago Illinois Wind Ensemble. In 2017, Hennecken channeled the baroque concerto grosso genre in his Athens Concerto. The piece was commissioned and premiered by a consortium of university bands sponsored by Jaclyn Hartenberger and the University of Georgia Wind Symphony.

Hennecken is currently Music Program Director and Associate Professor of Theory and Composition at Saint Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts institution in De Pere, Wisconsin. He has won fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Hambidge Center. He earned his D.M.A. at the University of Georgia and his B.A. from Georgia College. His principal teachers have been Adrian P. Childs, Leonard V. Ball Jr., and Douglas O’Grady. He has also participated in masterclasses with David Conte, Chen Yi, Steven Stucky, and Claude Baker.