Dominic Johnson has called Chicago home for over 20 years, and hails originally from the Pacific Northwest. In the 90’s he played viola in an indie-rock band based in Chicago and Louisville called rachel’s, and subsequently felt the Windy City's magnetic pull draw him into its heady artistic orbit. Career highlights have included co-founding and executive directing the New Millennium Orchestra from 2005-15, performing his silent film score Beats, the Bauhaus, and the Birth of Abstract Film at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in 2016, and spending three seasons in the music department at Comedy Central’s Emmy-nominated TV show Drunk History.

Freelance engagements of note have included performing with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Renée Fleming, Father John Misty, Lupe Fiasco, and a tag team DJ set at the Kennedy Center with Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates. 2023 featured a few stints as a viola section member of the Chicago Philharmonic, an evening with local jazz heroes Greg Ward, Makaya McCraven, Bill MacKay, and Christian Dillingham at Elastic Arts, a performance of Max Grafe’s piano quintet with David Gresham, MingHuan Xu, Nick Photinos, and Winston Choi at RED NOTE New Music Festival, and a mini world tour/weekend covering Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota with indie rocker Jason Narducy. Other relatively recent superlative musical activities have included membership in the University of Chicago's Grossman Ensemble for the 2021-22 season and creating arrangements, music directing, and performing for Sudan Archives' 2020 NPR Tiny Desk concert.

Photographer: David Wittig