John Humphries was born in Sheffield, and read Music at Oxford University. Subsequently he attended London's Guildhall School of Music, where he studied the natural horn with Anthony Halstead. His editions of horn music have been performed by many of the world's leading horn players, including Barry Tuckwell, Michael Thompson, Eric Ruske, Anthony Halstead, Stephen Stirling, Frank Lloyd, Javier Bonet and Raul Diaz and his reconstructions of Mozart's incomplete horn concerto movements have been praised for their "polish, authenticity, good scholarship and talent".
He is also well known as an arranger. One of his arrangements appears on the legendary London Horn Sound CD while others have been played worldwide by "The Wallace Collection". His arrangements for young players appear on all the main examination syllabuses in the UK.
As a writer, he has contributed booklet notes for many CDs and programme notes for hundreds of concerts. He has contributed articles and reviews for "The Horn Call", "The Horn Magazine" and "Brass Bulletin". His book, "The Early Horn", was published by Cambridge University Press in 2000 and has been described as "a superb book" "packed with usefulness" "Rarely can anything have been written on the early history of the horn that is quite as accessible and flowing." John is also a teacher and an examiner. He lives in Surrey, England with his wife, son and daughter and his hobbies include collecting brass instruments and repairing them.
