John Cooper

John began working for Franklin College OIT in March of 2022 as part of the Gilbert Hub, and later joined the Plant Sciences hub as an Associate in 2025. John has worked for UGA in the past as an Educator in the UGA String Project, and is on-call for hire as a pit violinist/violist for 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 the Athens Symphony Orchestra. Though classically trained on viola and violin, John loves to learn new instruments and new styles of music. John played viola & violin for several years with Athens Tango Project, played electric violin & guitar for the fiddling group Candle Hill Lions, and currently plays guitar with the band Jet Engine Dragons. As a tango violinist, John has done multiple international North American tours with Athens Tango Project, and has also acted as the groups' sound tech during the tours. John also does contract work with the Morton Theatre as a Sound Technician for musical and theatrical performances, and has also assisted on various projects around Athens as a producer and recording engineer.

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

In his free time, John is an avid disc golfer; enjoying the thrill of throwing plastic circles as far as he can (when it doesn't hit a tree first). He also enjoys board games, video games, hiking & camping, and occasionally meeting up with the UGA Parkour community for some much needed training.