About
Our Director - John Ryan
John Ryan has been with the Palmetto Statesmen since 2013 and has served as Vice President of Music and Assistant Director since joining. He was hired as Interim Musical Director in January of 2019. Having been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 2002, he has been singing with a number of quartets since joining. He has sung with Carolina Blend, a mixed quartet called TUNESQUAD, and a couple of quartets from New York City: Greenwich Av and Harmonius Rex. He has also sang with two other choruses since joining, the international qualifying Carolina Vocal Express from Rocky Mount, NC and the Big Apple Chorus out of Manhattan, NY.
John earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he graduated with honors. While living in the New York City area, John served as a soloist at St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church in Colonia, NJ for 4 years before moving to South Carolina in 2011.
John also participates in many musical endeavors around the Upstate South Carolina region, including performing in musicals at the Younts Center in Fountain Inn such as "The Music Man" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He also plays trombone for the classic rock cover band The Vinyl Junkies, and plays guitar for the City of Spartanburg as part of the Chapman Center’s Downtown Programming.
As his career, John works as an IT professional at Regional Management Corp. in Greer.