He was a tuba player and teacher who began playing the tuba from the time he was 14 years old.
He attended the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Charles Luxon and after leaving there he joined the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and remained there for three years. In 1969 he joined the Philharmonia Orchestra where he would remain until 2006.
Aside from performing with the Philharmonia he was a member of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.
He appeared on numerous recordings including Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Classics for Brass and Festive Brass with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, the soundtracks of Lawrence of Arabia and The Big Country and Performance by Marti Webb.
As a teacher he was a Professor of Tuba at the Royal College of Music in London and gave several masterclasses.
He passed away after a short illness in October 2008.
Sources:
- http://www.rcm.ac.uk/about/upbeat/archive/Upbeat%20Spring%202009.pdf
- http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30250&start=0
- http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/thephilharmoniaorchestra/membersoftheorchestra/tuba/johnjenkins/
- http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/pjbe/db/show.php?&id=12
- http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:John%20Jenkins:1927000936:page=discography:subpage=all:b=31
- http://www.freewebs.com/ngsimmons/index.htm
- http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=738572104825
- http://www.vinylrevival.com/lists/classical.shtml
- http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/news/2007/02/11/