John W. Calloway
Treasurer
Dr. John Calloway is a nationally recognized multi-instrumentalist/composer and educator who has performed with internationally known musicians Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Omar Sosa and Max Roach, and in the Bay Area, with Mark Levine and Marcus Shelby. In addition to leading his own various jazz and Latin ensembles, John has worked and collaborated with Bay Area Latin music legend John Santos for over 50 years. He has also curated the Flute Odyssey project since 2008 and was the musical director for over two decades with both the Afro Cuban Ensemble of San Francisco State University (1999-2024) and the Latin Jazz Ensemble of San Francisco (2001-2023).
John has written for several GRAMMY nominated recordings, was awarded an Emmy in 2019 for his composition “No Hay Nada Mas SF,” and arranged music for the HBO movie “Hemingway & Gellhorn.” He also has released three recording projects, including “Asere Ko” (2016), and his most current project “Buffalo Soldiers in the Philippine American War: A Crisis of Conscience” was a multimedia piece that was performed throughout the Bay Area in 2023 and 2024. John made his debut as a composer with the Golden Gate Symphony in 2024 with his composition “La Nao de China.”
Dr. Calloway holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the City University of New York, a master’s degree in music education from San Francisco State University, and a doctorate in multicultural education from the University of San Francisco. John was a music teacher and administrator in
SF public schools for over 30 years and has been on faculty at San Francisco State University since 1999. Dr. He has also taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop, the Jazz School, and has been on faculty for JazzCampWest since 1997.
Dr. Calloway been recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association with the Jazz Hero Award in 2012, by the California Music Educators Association with the Ernest R. Yee Illuminating Culture Award in 2015, and in 2025 was inducted in the California Jazz Educators Hall of Fame for the California Alliance for Jazz Education.
