Charles, John

John Charles was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1940. During his first year at University of Victoria Wellington, where he enrolled for a BA in 1958, he joined the UVW Jazz Club and began playing jazz regularly as their pianist.

In 1963, after two years at New Zealand Broadcasting Service, he returned to UVW to complete his study for a Bachelor of Music degree. In 1967 he was appointed producer for NZBC television. There he produced and directed various live current affairs, documentary music, ballad and jazz programs, and broadcasts of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (1970-1973).

He moved to Australia in 1974 and for the next four years worked in the Music Department at ABC-TV, directing broadcasts of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the series Music of Australia and Wilfred Lehman Conducts.

His cinema music credits include Goodbye Pork Pie, Constance, a Soldier’s Tale , Zombie Brigade and Taking Liberties, the television movies Man of Letters, the Perfectionist and the mini-series Heart of The High Country.