John Livingston has worked extensively as a collaborative pianist, getting his start at the age of 13. Since then, he has had a continuous stream of collaborative experiences ranging from choirs to musical theatre, to college instrumental lessons and recitals, and more. In 2009 at the age of 18, Mr. Livingston partnered with a local community theatre company, Pentacle Theater, in their production of My Fair Lady. Hooked by this initial foray into musical theater, Mr. Livingston continued to work with Pentacle Theater on six of their following musical productions. During this partnership, his talents were developed as both a rehearsal and performance pianist for musical theater. Beyond this work, John continued to strengthen his reputation as an accompanist, working with local middle and high school choirs. Notably, he accompanied West Salem High School’s choir in their first-place performance in Oregon State High School Choir competition in the year 2013.

Being accepted to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013, John studied Piano Performance under the highly sought after tutelage of Dr. Robert Weirich, earning his Bachelor of Music degree (cum laude) in 2017. During his undergrad John worked closely with singers from all the voice studios which culminated in being asked to play Stravinsky’s famously difficult aria “No Word from Tom” from The Rake’s Progress at commencement ceremony in the Kauffman Center. John was subsequently accepted into the Master’s program at UMKC and was awarded one of the Opera Accompanying graduate assistantship. During his time at UMKC, along with all the work with singers, John also incorporated extensive instrumental accompanying, playing for lessons and recitals for cellists, violinists, oboists, trombonists, and more. 

In recent years, John has also developed a relationship with the Midwest Chamber Ensemble in Kansas City and has played on many of their concerts since 2020. John is also a founding member and principal accompanist of Choral Spectrum, a LGBTQ and supporting choir which is the first of its kind in Kansas City.

Along with other members from the opera community of Kansas City, John became a founding member of Dramatic Voices Midwest, an opera company based in Kansas City which was formed to provide more opportunities for dramatic singers to have opportunities that are few and far between otherwise. The first two seasons featured Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre, respectively, with John playing the entire epic scores solo from the piano. 

Besides his undergrad work with Dr. Robert Weirich, John has had masterclasses with esteemed teachers including Gilbert Kalish, Alon Goldstein, and Margot Garret. John completed his Master’s degree at UMKC in 2019, having studied with the 2013 Van Cliburn third prize winner, Sean Chen. 

John is currently the full-time accompanist at the Pembroke Hill School.