Kip Johnson (he/him) is a baritone, composer, and multi-instrumentalist from Monterey, California. He graduated from Fountain School of Performing Arts with a degree in Composition in 2023, after beginning his studies with a focus on vocal performance. His writing draws from a deep love of folk music, introduced to him by friends and family, his own experience performing in orchestras and choirs, and an abiding fascination with the natural world, especially the ocean. 

Kip was the recipient of the 2023 Owen Maitzen Prize in Composition, as well as the winner of the 2023 Arcady Emerging Artist Composition Competition. His choral piece Forsaken was performed at the 2023 Open Waters Festival in Halifax, as well as at the Kings College Chapel on Good Friday. He has participated in composition workshops with Symphony Nova Scotia, Erin Lesser, Ensemble Silakbo, and the Orlando Consort, and written works for SATB choir, solo piano, and full orchestra. His music has also been used to score the Fountain School’s 2023 performance of Peer Gynt. 

In Halifax, Kip is the Graduate Conducting Fellow of the King’s College Chapel Choir, as well as being assistant director of the Kings Chorus and a choral scholar with the Cathedral Church of All Saints. Notable performances Kip has sung include the King’s Chorus 2022 performance of Mendelssohn’s Te Deum a 8, where he was a featured soloist, the Dalhousie Opera’s 2020 production of James Rolfe’s opera Aeneas and Dido, where he played the title role of Aeneas; singing Mozart’s Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen in the Fountain School of Performing Arts Concerto Night in 2020; and a 2019 performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the King’s College Chapel Choir and Charles Daniels. 

In 2023, Kip joined Chor Leoni and the Leonids for a weeklong stint as a member of the Emerging Choral Artist Program, performing in the world premiere of Sarah Rimkus’s The Watcher of the Wood.

He was twice selected for the Ellison National Honour Choir, in 2018 and 2019, with performances in Toronto and Ottawa respectively. During those tours, he was privileged to work with directors Scott Leithead and Kitibielle Pasagui.

Kip is an accomplished performer on the French horn, playing with the Dalhousie Creative Music Ensemble, the Munich Youth Orchestra and the Victoria Youth Orchestra. He also substitutes with the Dalhousie Orchestra. As a member of the Dalhousie Creative Music Ensemble, Kip provided music for the Fountain School’s 2023 Devised Production Not Now, Not Yet. 

Kip performs with various folk ensembles both in Halifax and further afield, with a focus on traditional music of the British Isles, the folk revival, and the North American Exchange. He writes his own music drawing on those traditions, performing on banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, guitar, and low whistle. His experience with folk and popular music has drawn him to busking, performing on waterfronts and farmers markets around the world. The social aspect of this style of music is at the forefront of all Kip’s writing and performance, with a deep belief that music is primarily a collaborative, community focused art.