A protégé of Lorin Maazel, Kynan Johns was resident conductor at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A native of Australia, he has conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney and New Zealand Symphony Orchestas, among many other.

In opera, Johns has worked at London’s Covent Garden and Italy’s La Sala, and has conducted Maazel’s 1984, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Luisa Miller, and Don Carlos in Valencia; Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in Rouen; Don Giovanni for Opera Magdeburg; La Bohème and Faust for the State Opera of South Australia; and worked on Adès’s Powder Her Face, Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, and Offenbach’s La Périchole for New York City Opera.

An associate principal guest conductor for the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, Madrid, Johns has worked with many leading artists, including Plácido Domingo, Olga Peretyatko, Maurice André, Vadim Repin, Peter Donohoe, and Barbara Frittoli. He was awarded the inaugural Centenary Medal by the Australian government for his service to music and has won prizes in many international conducting competitions, including the Dimitris Mitropoulos International, Maazel/Vilar, and Besançon competitions.

Johns is represented by Columbia Artists Management, Inc.