John Cole began his compositional training at the University of Victoria studying under Michael Longton, John Makay and Rudolf Komorous. During this period of study he became interested in interdiciplinary work which led to the creation of music to accompany the Samuel Becket play "Ohio Impromptu". After graduating in 1989 he moved to Toronto for a period of time to work for New Music Concerts and pursue his composition work. During this period he performed with the "Drystone Orchestra" and entered the Array Music Young Composers' Workshop. From 1991 to 1993 he studied at Simon Fraser University's School for Contemporary Arts. During this time he continued working in an interdiscipliary way creating work for dance, some music installations and a large work for dancers, sound sculptures and musicians entitled "Ballet". After graduating he was offered a residency at Open Space gallery in Victoria and later a Canada Council Explorations Grant to produce the sound installation "Little stars for Jacquard". He taught a course in Sound Art at the University of Victoria Faculty of Fine Arts in 1996. Since moving to Japan in 1997 he has been focusing on writing concert music. In 1999 he received a two year Monbusho government scholarship to continue his music studies with Jo Kondo at Elizabeth University in Hiroshima. In April 2001 he formed the "Ensemble Sonore" a group focusing on the performance of new works written for the ensemble along with performances of early music and modernist experimental music.