About this Artist

John Sutton, DMA, is the Artistic Director of the Angeles Chorale where he has served the choral community of Los Angeles since 2004. His professional choral career spans over five decades of conducting in the community, church, academic, and professional settings. From major choral and instrumental works, concert and chamber choirs, to music for television and movies, Dr. Sutton is recognized for his ability to work with children, youth, adults, amateurs, and professionals alike. Today he is one of the most active professional conductors in the nation.

Dr. Sutton holds degrees from Northwest University, San José State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles and continues to study with and be influenced by his two mentoring professors, Dr. Charlene Archibeque (SJSU) and Professor Donald Neuen (UCLA).

As a choral scholar, Dr. Sutton has studied with some of the most distinguished conductors in the field of choral music. Beyond his focused choral training in the university setting, John has studied and performed with notable choral luminaries such as Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Eric Ericson, Weston Noble, Frank Pooler, Howard Swan, Paul Salamunovich, Anton Armstrong, Eph Ely, Jerry Blackstone, and many others. His performance career has taken him throughout the United States and abroad in choral concert tours and recording projects, including performances at iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Constitution Hall. His performance tours have taken him across the United States and around the world, conducting throughout Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America.

His enthusiasm for the choral art and his commitment to excellence has made him a popular choral clinician, festival conductor, and adjudicator, leading workshops for the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Church Musicians, American Christian Schools International, Choristers Guild, the national Conference on Liturgy and Worship, the Mount Herman Summer Choral Conference, and many others. He was the plenary speaker at the National Association of Church Musicians, Mid-Winter Conference, and the featured clinician for the Lake Tahoe “Summer Sing.” John has prepared choirs from the United States and the United Kingdom for performances at the Brittania Music Festival in Birmingham and London and is the founding conductor for the Exultate Deo Choral Festival in Buenos Aires.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2000, John has conducted choral music heard on weekly television series and national ad campaigns for major motion pictures and events such as the Olympics, the Harry Potter series, the Spider Man series, The Da Vinci Code, Fantastic Four, and countless others. In 2005, he was appointed as the music director/conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s annual Holiday Sing-Along. His ongoing relationship with the LA Phil has resulted in conducting performances at the Hollywood Bowl with Barry Manilow, Barbara Streisand, and two sold-out performances with Julie Andrews at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In December 2021, John is serving as the chorus master for the “Home Alone in Concert” productions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and will join Melissa Peterman in bringing to life the LA Phil’s Holiday Sing-Along.

Dr. Sutton is a Professor at Azusa Pacific University in the College of Music and the Arts (CMA) where he has been nominated for the national Arlin G. Meyer Award for Outstanding Musical Performance, received the inaugural Faith & Fine Arts Award, and, for two consecutive years, was CMA’s nominee for APU’s Most Inspirational Faculty of the Year.

The Angeles Chorale is a professional-level choral ensemble in the Greater Los Angeles Area. John Sutton follows John Alexander and Donald Neuen in leading this ensemble in its fourth decade of brilliant music making and choral art brought to the Greater Los Angeles community.

Dr. Sutton continues to lead and consult with the choral and worship programs at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, where he has served since fall 2000. He resides in Altadena, California, with his wife, Dr. Cecilia Patiño-Sutton, a native Argentine.