Born in Chicago in 1951, John Carbon studied composition at Rice University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his teachers included Thea Musgrave, Paul Cooper, Emma Lou Diemer and Peter Racine Fricker. He is presently the Richard S. and Ann B. Barshinger Professor of Music at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His catalogue includes three operas, Marie Laveau, Benjamin, and Disappearing Act, along with many choral, orchestral, vocal, and chamber works. Carbon has a special flair for the virtuosity and drama needed for concertos, and has completed works in this genre for clarinet, violin, trumpet, piano, and most recently double bass.
His music has been heard at Merkin Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls at Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, and Prague's Smetana Hall.