A musician and circus director for over 30 years, John is feverishly exploring Texas Swing music in all its early forms. John played bluegrass mandolin and bass in the 1970s in Los Angeles and Nashville, worked in theater in the 1980s (studying at Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin in 1987) and had a long run as co-founder and artistic director of San Diego's Fern Street Circus. He created and produced circus shows and events from 1991 to 2003, commissioning original music and playing in the band from 1998 to 2003.
He and his wife Cindy Zimmerman, an artist and educator, moved to Salina, Kansas in 2004 (for John's now former job with the city's arts department).
After all these years of being a sideman, John Highkin has stepped out as a solo musical performer. His circus past shows through in his choice of unusual songs – swing and vintage tunes, standards and oddities – and his combining playing mandolin, tenor banjo and upright bass while on stilts. It creates a show, a story, and a memorable time.
