John Paul Sharp grew up in the northwest suburbs of Wichita, Kansas during the 80's and 90's of the last century. Even as a child he loved being on stage, acting in musical theatre and singing in the Wichita All-City Honors Boys Choir. He learned how to play the piano and eventually started writing his first compositions in his early teens.
As a young adult, he focused much of his time and energy towards activism for equal rights. He was an Honorary Speaker at the 1998 Wichita Pride Rally, awarding the Most Outstanding Youth title from the Wichita Gay and Lesbian Awards of the same year. All of this work led to a job in San Francisco building online communities for a media corporation called PlanetOut.
When the Internet Bubble burst at the beginning of the millenium, Sharp was laid off and forced to go back to what he did as a teenager: wait tables. He ended up waiting tables off and on throughout his twenties.
When Sharp moved to Denver, Colorado, his journey with music really got underway. He enrolled as a vocal performance student in the Music and Entertainment Industry Studies program of the College of Arts & Media at the University of Colorado Denver.
In the seven years Sharp lived in Denver, he wrote, recorded and produced twenty original albums, composed and arranged music for a capella groups, and acted and scored music for several short films. In 2008, he started Little Speckles Music Publishing which owns all the rights to his musical works. Sharp and his company are registered with ASCAP.
Sharp returned to the stage to act, sing and dance in several principle roles for Curtain Productions Theatre Company. Additionally, he wrote and produced music for three original music theatre shows: My Big Phat Gay Musical (2009), Strangers (2010), and The Velveteen Rabbit (2011). Sharp also produced two charity concerts at Swallow Hill Music Association, raising money for MaxFund No-Kill Animal Shelter.
Today, Sharp lives in Seattle, Washington. He is currently working on completing an online M.A. in eLearning Implementation and Design under the Information and Learning Technologies program of the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver. He is hoping to penetrate the music theatre industry in the Pacific Northwest and explore more avenues and opportunities in Music, Performance and Songwriting Education.
