Lunchtime Classical Concert | John Garner & Adam Johnson

John Garner, violin and Adam Johnson, piano

Programme

Dinuk Wijeratne – Violin Sonata (first movement)
Fazil Say – Violin Sonata No. 2
Reena Esmail – ‘Jhula Jhule’

John Garner

A tireless experimenter, well-versed in multiple traditions, mercurial violinist John Garner is one of the most exciting and unusual voices to emerge in recent years, combining immaculate technique with a fearless musicality and free-wheeling improvisational aesthetic. A graduate of the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, formally trained in classical, jazz and South Indian music, John defies categorisation and is continually seeking new avenues of expression. Having studied with renowned international artists including Dr. Jyotsna Srikanth, Dr. Rimma Sushanskaya, Chris Garrick, Daniel Rowland and Byron Wallen, John boasts an impressive discography as bandleader and composer (EMANATA; The Future Ancients; The John Garner Quartet), chamber musician (Guastalla Quartet; Mainly Two), supporting musician (Music Of Our Kind; Avartan; Kate Williams’ Four Plus Three), session musician (Sway Dasafo; AZEDIA; The Last Skeptik; Lucy Claire) and more. John has toured at home and internationally with artists and groups as diverse as Chris Potter, guitarist John Williams, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Kate Williams’ Four Plus Three (Parliamentary Jazz Award 2020), Jim Rattigan’s Triplicity and Riot Ensemble. Passionate about education, he is the co-director of Mudita Arts, a senior lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire and a tutor at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music. His music has been released on labels including Lo Recordings, Steep Gloss, Difficult Art and Music, Wormhole World, as well as his own label Turquoise Coconut. He is currently a student of shakuhachi grandmaster Cornelius Shinzen Boots, and a postgraduate research student at Newcastle University, where he is the recipient of the Clara Whittaker Music PhD Scholarship. He is a regular contributor to MEANS Magazine and an occasional contributor to Beware the Zine

“Fleet, melodically audacious” – The Guardian

Adam Johnson

Multi-prize-winning pianist, composer and conductor, Adam Johnson was a Scholar and Junior Fellow of Accompaniment at The Royal Northern College of Music. He has performed under the baton of Stephen Bell, Kent Nagano, Martyn Brabbins, and George Hurst, making his Concerto debut aged 15 playing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15 in Pavlovsk Place, St. Petersburg, conducting from the piano. He has performed on some of the world’s finest concert platforms including Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Cadogan Hall, Altes Rathaus Vienna, Schoenberg Saal, Austria, and continues to teach piano at Durham University and at Newcastle University where he is Head of Keyboard.

Photograph of the fabulous pianist, Adam Johnson

Adam studied piano with David Murray, Ka Kit Tam, Martin Roscoe and Peter Feuchtwanger (who described him as in possession of ‘an excellent technique and full of fantasy’