I remember meeting Dominic Johnson when I was 14 years old. We are both from the Pacific Northwest, you see, and wound up at the same summer chamber music camp, the Olympic Music Festival. Run by former members of the Philadelphia String Quartet on a farm on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, it was a magical, unforgettable summer for me in which I experienced all those wonderful, cringy "band camp" moments you see in the movies (well, maybe not all...) and, more importantly, where I first really fell in love with playing string quartets.
Dom was 17 at the time - a few years older, a hotshot violist, and therefore, in my mind, the coolest kid in school. I recall losing miserably to him in ping-pong matches, following along in late night boys-cabin-vs-girls-cabin practical jokes, and (ok now this is a little embarrassing) even trying to glean whatever adolescent wisdom I could from his suave interactions with the ladies.
Flash forward almost 20 years and I am in Chicago looking for a good violist for a banquet gig. Someone recommended this guy Dom Johnson. "Wait... that Dominic Johnson?!?"
It's been great to be running in the same musical circles as Dom for these past 5 years. In addition to his sensitive and dynamic viola playing, he is the executive director of the innovative New Millennium Orchestra, and performs regularly as a DJ as Dojo. Check out his 2010 collaborative album with Abominable Twitch here: Dojo vs. Twitch
And for more recent music, check out this set with Searchl1te for the MusicNOW series:
With his vast experience as a string player and a DJ, I am particularly excited to see what he comes up with for this project!