John Eaton was called "The most interesting opera composer writing in America today" by Andrew Porter. He is internationally recognized as a composer of electronic and microtonal music.

Eaton's work has been performed throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as the US. Many compositions have been broadcast, and his television opera, Myshkin, was seen by an estimated 15,000,000 people, winning the Peabody Award.

Among his best known works are his operas The Cry of Clytaemnestra, with twenty performances, and The Tempest, called a "formidible intellectual as well as musical achievement ... an opera of stark beauty" by Michael Walsh in Time Magazine. His most recent grand opera, The Reverend Jim Jones, was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1993 he formed the Pocket Opera Players, which premiered Peer Gynt, Don Quixote, “…inasmuch”, Pinocchio and eight others.

Eaton has been much honored. In 1990, he received the "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation. His music was chosen to represent the U.S.A. in 1970 at the International Rostrum of Composers. He has received a citation from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, three Prix de Rome Grants, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.