Journeys in Melody_Episode 6 | Dr. Mikhail Johnson - Classical Pianist and Composer (Jamaica)

Dr. Mikhail Johnson is a Jamaican Classical Music Composer and Pianist. He was born in the rural hills of Maroon Town in the parish of St. James, Jamaica, is one of the country’s most promising pianists and composers. He was winner of the Jamaica Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition for Young Musicians Senior Division in 2009, and in the same year, won the piano section of the Jamaica Music Teachers' Association Music Competition. He has won numerous gold medals and national awards in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Festival of the Performing Arts, and he was also a finalist in the 2017 American Prize Music Competition for Piano (collegiate division). In 2021 he was two-time First Prize winner of the Charleston International Music Competition and the first Jamaican to enter the competition. Deemed by Spoleto Festival USA as “a composer who invites us to consider and reframe our sonic sensibilities,” Johnson’s compositional style merges traditional European classical music and the avant-garde with traditional Jamaican cultural idiosyncrasies. Johnson’s music has been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, The Cantus Ensemble in London, The North/South Consonance Ensemble, The Concordia Ensemble of the University of Notre Dame and The Northwest Sinfonietta. He was winner of the 2016 NEOSonicFest Young and Emerging Composers Composition; 2019 Composer-in-Residence at the University of Notre-Dame, South Bend, Indiana; 2020 winner of the Transient Canvas Composition Fellowship; recipient of 2021-2022 National Association of Teachers of Singing NATS Mentorship Program for Composers; the 2022 Alea Publishing & Recording Dolphy Prize; the 2022-2023 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) Composer Residency Fellowship; and composer for the 2022-2023 Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab for a new chamber opera. As a pianist and composer, I seek to create a conduit that allows classical concert music to be more inviting to a public who believes this music is not meant for them. Website: https://www.mikhailjohnson.com/ #Music #Composer #ClassicalMusic #Pianist #Jamaica