John Fernström was a Swedish composer, conductor, and violinist, born in Yichang, China, on December 6, 1897. The son of a Swedish missionary working in China, he spent his first ten years there before returning to Sweden. In 1913 he entered the Malmö Conservatory to study violin. When his teacher, Karl Nordberger, moved to Stockholm, Fernström followed him. He joined the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in 1916 and continued to perform with it until 1932.
Fernström traveled regularly to Copenhagen until 1924 to develop his violin playing with Max Schlüter, then studied composition there with Peder Gram through 1930. In 1921–22 he also studied in Berlin with Alfred Wittenberg and Isay Barmas, and later trained as a conductor in Sondershausen. Alongside his orchestra work, he performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Helsingborg and other cities in southern Sweden. Until 1939, he held an administrative post with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and conducted its concerts for young audiences.
After the orchestra’s leadership rejected his candidacy for chief conductor in 1939, Fernström resigned and moved to Malmö. There he conducted a radio orchestra, taught, and wrote music for productions at the city theater. From 1944 he lived and worked in Lund, where he headed the local music school and conducted one of the city’s orchestras. He helped initiate the Lund Academic Choir in 1948 and founded and led the North Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1951. In 1953 he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Fernström began composing in the 1920s, though he later destroyed many of his early works. His output included the opera Akhnaten (1931), twelve symphonies, two violin concertos (1928 and 1952), works for violin, and choral pieces. His first major success as a composer was the Concertino for Flute, String Orchestra, and Women's Choir, Op. 52 (1941), which was well received in Stockholm in 1943 and established his reputation nationally. He also orchestrated Ture Rangström’s unfinished opera Gilgamesh. His composing activity largely ended in 1953 as his administrative responsibilities grew. His autobiographical notes were published in 1997.