Percussionist and composer John Wyre, who created World Drum festivals in Canada and abroad, has died in St. John's.

The 65-year-old had been in palliative care for several weeks and passed away Tuesday.

"He loved sound and he wrote music that reflected that very simple relationship with it," David Jaeger, the executive producer of Two New Hours on CBC Radio 2, said Wednesday.

Wyre, born in Philadelphia in 1941, became a Canadian citizen in 1972.

He studied percussion in the late 1950s under Fred Hinger of the Philadelphia Orchestra and received a music degree in 1963 from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

'He was revered by his colleagues around the world because of his great desire to be involved in percussion music of all cultures.'- David Jaeger, executive producer, Two New Hours, CBC Radio

Wyre's career took him to Oklahoma City, Milwaukee and eventually Toronto, where he was a timpanist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1966 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1981.

Wyre was also a founding member of the group Nexus, formed in 1971. The percussion ensemble toured the world, including Asia, Brazil and Scandinavia. The group also collaborated with the likes of the Kronos Quartet and the Canadian Brass. Wyre left the ensemble in 2002 to devote more time to composing.

"As a performing artist, I think he was revered by his colleagues around the world because of his great desire to be involved in percussion music of all cultures," Jaeger told CBC Arts Online.

Wyre initiated World Drum festivals for almost 20 years at numerous international events, including the 1984 Toronto International Festival, Expo 86 in Vancouver, the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, Expo 88 in Australia, Expo 98 in Portugal and Expo 2000 in Germany.

He was also an instructor with Canada's National Youth Orchestra and at the University of Toronto.

Compositions performed all over the world

Wyre also excelled as a composer, creating many commissioned works which have been performed in Canada, the U.S. and Japan. Some of his better-known pieces include Utau Kane No Wa (1974), Bernie (1976), First Flower (1984) and Connexus (1977), commissioned by the CBC.

"As a composer, he managed to capture the magic that he felt in pure sound," recalled Jaeger. "Somehow his approach was simple, very clear and he just let things kind of sound forth, as it were."

His pieces have been performed by the likes of the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Finland’s Tampere Kaupungin-Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony and other orchestras in North America.

Wyre also performed some of his compositions with the Japan Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as well as the Lyric Arts Trio.

He created the music for an IMAX film in 1991 on the mountain gorillas of Rwanda with his world music ensemble, Buka.

In 2002, the Canada Council for the Arts gave Wyre the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in recognition of his achievements in music.