Photographed: Lord Mayor of Dublin, Emma Blain; DIPC Artistic Director, Finghin Collins; Carter Johnson; KPMG Partner (Sponsorship of First Prize) Killian Croke

Canadian-American Pianist, Carter Johnson has had an extremely fruitful summer, winning the 2025 Dublin International Piano Competition in May – and subsequently flying to Fort Worth, Texas the following week to compete in the highly prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, of which he was a Finalist.  International piano competitions are musical (and psychological and physical) marathons – and to have competed in both competitions back to back alone is a great achievement.  Johnson’s live audiences were highly impressed with his innate talent for storytelling both through his music and otherwise.  His exciting repertoire, consisting of many lesser-performed works was a breath of fresh air, without ever feeling out of place.

Johnson began his piano studies with Shelley Roberts for 12 years on Vancouver Island, where he grew up.  Under the tutelage of Mark Anderson, he studied his Bachelor of Music at the University of British Columbia, before moving to the USA for his Master’s Degree at The Julliard School, where he studied with Joseph Kalichstein and Matti Raekallio.  He has since lived in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife Hannah and their sons Preston and Ambrose, while pursuing his DMA with Wei-Yi Yang at Yale School of Music and maintaining his busy performing schedule.

Having been described by Gramophone as “the greatest thing since sliced bread”, Johnson’s other competition laurels include being Silver Medalist in the 2024 Gina Bachauer International Competition, First Prizes of the 2023 Concours Hauts-de-France, the 2021 International Competition of Polish Music, the 2020 Valsesia International Competition, the 2024 Heida Hermanns International Competition and the 2023 Weatherford College International Competition. Other awards include the prize for the ‘Most Promising Pianist Not Proceeding to the Final’ in the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, a Finalist Prize in the 2023 Walter Naumburg Competition, the ‘Best Performance of the Commissioned Work in the 2024 Gina Bachauer Competition, and the best chamber music performance in the 2025 Dublin Competition. Johnson rose to prominence in his home country when in 2018 he was declared the winner of two of Canada’s most important national competitions, garnering both the Grand Prize in the OSM Competition and the First Prize in the CMC Stepping Stone competition.

He has performed with orchestras including the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Utah Symphony, the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Americas.  Venues in which he has performed include the Maison Symphonique, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Bass Performance Hall, the Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y, the Shenzhen Concert Hall, Salle Bourgie, and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall.  Johnson maintains  a close relationship with Angela Hewitt, who has been an important mentor and chamber music partner – and the pair most recently performed together at the Trasimeno Music Festival in Italy in June.

Equally at home in the worlds of solo, concerto, chamber, and vocal music, Johnson has a particular interest in bringing light to lesser-explored parts of the repertory.  Although his closest affinity is with the music of J.S. Bach and Robert Schumann, in the concert hall he is also a strong proponent of many composers of the earlier 20th century, including Paul Hindemith, Dmitri Shostakovich, Francis Poulenc, Charles Ives, Alfred Schnittke, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Karol Szymanowski.

Johnson was trained in elocution as a teenager and holds an ATCL with Distinction in Speech and Drama from Trinity College London, which he loves to incorporate into his recitals – through discussions on the music that is being played.  This skill was recognized in the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, where he was awarded the ‘Best Program Presentation’ in the Semifinals for his program design and verbal introductions.  His performances of Poulenc’s setting of L’histoire de Babar le pétit éléphant, in which he plays the role of both pianist and narrator, are particularly beloved by audiences of every age and background.  An avid connoisseur of art song, he has also honed this skill into his experience as a vocal coach.  He has also studied oboe, voice, and harpsichord as secondary instruments.

We are delighted to continue working with Carter and look forward to his future recitals.  In the meantime, you can keep up to date with his international concerts through his website.