John Cooper

John began working for Franklin College OIT in March of 2022 as part of the Gilbert Hub. John has also worked for UGA as a Strings Teacher in the UGA String Project, and as a pit violinist/violist for several UGA Opera productions.

John attended UGA from 2014-2018 where he studied Viola Performance under Professor Maggie Snyder. 

Outside of IT, John is a professional classical musician, and plays with several ensembles across the state of Georgia. Notably, he serves as the Principal Viola for both the Athens Symphony and Toccoa Symphony Orchestras. Though classically trained on viola and violin, John loves to learn new instruments and new styles of music. John is the violist/violinist for Athens Tango Project, the electric violinist/guitarist for the fiddling group Candle Hill Lions, and is the second guitarist for the metal band Jet Engine Dragons. As a tango violinist, John has performed in multiple international North American tours, and has also acted as the groups' sound technician throughout the tours. John does contract work with the Morton Theatre as a Sound Technician, and has also assisted on various projects around Athens as a producer and recording engineer.

John also participates in local music education, giving viola lessons and instrument workshops to local Athens-Clarke County orchestra programs via a local non-profit organization, HEART Music. He is an amateur luthier, and provides affordable guitar repair to students or school programs that can't afford to take their instruments in for needed repairs.  

In his free time, John is an avid disc golfer, and enjoys the thrill of throwing plastic circles as far as he can. He also enjoys playing video games, hiking and camping, and occasionally meeting up with the UGA parkour community for some training.