David Johnson

Photo by Trevor Johnson

I first met and performed with violinist David Johnson in 2006 at the Rio Cello Encounter In Rio de Janeiro. Producer Andre Oliveira, with whom I had worked, had a hunch that David and I would work well together. He wasn’t wrong, but after that wonderful all-Mozart concert it took us over 10 years before we started to play together again.

Since then, we have built up a repertoire of works which range from Mozart, Beethoven, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Grieg, Elgar, Villa Lobos, and several fun arrangements by Heifitz and Kreisler. Our signature pieces, “West Side Story” by Bernstein (in an arrangement by Raimundo Penaforte) and “Mes-Merengue” by British composer Mike Mower are great favourites with audiences.

See video clip of an excerpt from “Mes-Merengue”.

The Hull born violinist David Johnson studied in Manchester at the RNCM with the Polish violinist Bronislaw Gimpel. In 1978 he won a scholarship to study in Germany with Lukas David and Tibor Varga. During this time he became the leader of the Kammerorchester Tibor Varga. In 1980, he joined the prestigious Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne. Shortly afterwards he was invited to join the Märkl Quartet in which, for over ten years, he performed in many German cities and abroad. In addition, David has maintained a busy and intense career as a chamber musician and soloist. He has taken part in many festivals including the Rio International Cello Encounter in Rio de Janeiro, where he has performed as soloist with I Musici de Montreal, Orquestra Nacional de Brasilia and Orquestra Petrobas Sinfonica.