About John W Calloway
At SF State Since:
1999
Bio:
Ed.D - International and Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco
MA - Music Education, San Francisco State University
BA - Music, City University of New York
Dr. John Calloway is a nationally recognized multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who has maintained a dual career in education for over 30 years. He is also a community activist and a long time social justice and cultural advocate, having served as an SF Arts Commissioner from 2008-2013, as the Entertainment coordinator for Carnaval San Francisco since 2014, and currently is on the advisory board for Living Jazz of Oakland, CA.
In the LTNS studies department, John has taught LTNS 425, Popular and Traditional Music of the Latino Diaspora and LTNS 380, Afro Latina/o Diasporas. In the School of Music of SFSU, he has taught music theory, Latino and World music courses, music curriculum and education classes, and has been the director of the University’s Afro-Cuban Ensemble since 1999. As a music director elsewhere, John has taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, JazzCampWest, the Monterey Jazz Festival Summer Camp, La Escuela Nacional de Arte in Habana, Cuba, and currently directs the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco.
John’s research areas include equity and social justice in the arts. He was the multicultural representative for the Bay Area Section of the California Music Education Association form 2009 -2015 and wrote numerous articles on equity and culturally responsive curriculum for their Tempo magazine during his tenure. Dr. Calloway has been recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association with the Jazz Hero Award in 2012, and by the California Music Educators Association with the Ernest R. Yee Illuminating Culture Award in 2015.
Known for his prolific work in jazz, Latin American and other World music styles, John has performed and toured with such internationally known jazz musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Musselwhite, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Max Roach and Pete Escovedo In the SF Bay Area, with Jesus Diaz, Mark Levine, John Santos and Marcus Shelby. As an arranger and composer, he has written for several GRAMMY nominated recording projects as well as for films, including the HBO movie “Hemingway & Gelhorn.” John has several recording projects of his own. His latest CD “Asere Ko,” was released in 2016, which is in addition to his two previous recordings “The Code” (2007) and “Diaspora” (2001). Most recently, John wrote and produced the musical “El Son de La Mission,” about the cultural and political history of San Francisco’s Latino district and was a recipient of a 2019 EMMY award as a composer/performer for the commercial “No Hay Nada Mas SF."