About Us

John Metras has played a number of instruments professionally since the 1970s, including the guitar, piano, accordion and harp. As a graduate of Lone Mountain College as a guitar major, he proceeded to obtain a Masters degree in Music Education from Holy Names College in Oakland and a teaching credential at San Francisco State University.

John has been teaching music in Sonoma County schools for over 30 years, has mentored a number of new music teachers, and is certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In 2004 he won 1st place in the prestigious Lyon & Healy International Jazz and Pop Harpfest in the nonpedal harp division, playing his set on the cross-strung harp. He has published a number of books for harp, including 3 books for cross-strung harp. He has also taught at a number of local and national harp conferences (including the 2006 AHS National Conference, the 2006 Somerset “West” Folk Harp Festival in San Jose, the 2007 Big Sky Harp Festival in Montana and the 2007 Lyon & Healy Pop & Jazz Harpfest in Salt Lake City). John has been a major promoter of the chromatic cross-strung harp due to the instrument’s size, weight, cost, and versatility in playing any type of music without the use of levers or pedals. John started his own publishing company (Metrasound Music) in 1992 and has published a song flute method, and a band method, in addition to his numerous harp publications.