As a pianist since elementary school, Kyle Johnson has devoted most of his life to music. He is based in the Washington D.C./DMV area, where he maintains an active teaching studio.
He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Doctor of Musical Arts), the Longy School of Music at Bard College (Master of Music), and Belmont University (Bachelor of Music). During his training, he held multi-year teaching and performing assistantships. During his doctoral studies, Kyle served as president of his college’s chapter of the Music Teacher National Association, securing travel and performance opportunities for colleagues and peers. Additionally, he has been a member of the following honors-based and professional organizations: Alpha Chi, Pi Kappa Lambda, MTNA, and the College Music Society.
Notable performance experience includes two years as pianist for the Longitude New Music Ensemble (Cambridge, MA), the Boston New Music Initiative, founding the Wisconsin-based contemporary music ensemble Sound Out Loud, and serving on the leadership team for the LunART Festival (Madison, WI). As a pianist body double, his hands are featured in the movie Stoker, starring Nicole Kidman (2013, score by Philip Glass). His festival and competition appearances include: Kentucky Ambassadors of Music’s 2006 European tour, Governor’s School (KY, 2007), MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition (TN, 2010 and 2011), Princeton Festival (NJ, 2013), Brevard Music Institute (NC, 2011), Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (MA, 2013 and 2014), Pianofest In The Hamptons (NY, 2013), Aldeburgh Festival (UK, 2016), Chautauqua (NY, 2016).
Not only has Kyle been an active performer and collaborator, but also a researcher and presenter. He has been involved in several different research symposiums, such as the Belmont Undergraduate Research Symposium and the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium, and he has presented on musical topics at annual Alpha Chi, MTNA, and College Music Society conferences. He is also slated to teach a summer course at the Chautauqua Institute in 2023 on “The Pulitzer Prize in Music: 2000-present”.
His teachers include Dr. Gregory Partain, Dr. Robert Marler, Dr. Hugh Hinton, and Christopher Taylor, with extra instruction from Paul Schenly, Peter Serkin, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Tamara Stefanovich. He has received masterclasses from Ursula Oppens, Emil Naoumoff, Lisa Moore, Yeol Eum Son, Chu-Fang Huang, Spencer Myer, Yehudi Wyner, Steve Drury, Joyce Yang, and Orion Weiss.
Kyle graduated in May 2018 with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and doctoral minor in German. His dissertation involved the production of a podcast series of multidisciplinary perspectives around Messiaen, ornithology, ecology, and sound studies. The podcast, Art Music Perspectives, continues on with even more diversity of composers and perspectives!
