Award-winning Canadian conductor Adam Johnson has been praised as “an exciting talent” and for his “charismatic, commanding presence” on the podium. In 2016 he became Assistant Conductor of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, and was appointed Resident Conductor for the 2018-2019 season. He collaborated closely with Music Director Kent Nagano on award-winning recordings for Decca and Analekta, and contributed to performances in Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Festival, and a major European tour. He has conducted more than 65 concerts with the OSM and worked with renowned soloists such as Jean-Philipe Collard (Messiaen), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Saint-Saens), Charles Richard-Hamelin (Mozart and Gershwin), and Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Schoenberg), among others.

Prior to his tenure in Montréal, Johnson served for three seasons with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, initially as Resident Conductor (2013-2015), and subsequently as Associate Conductor (2015-2016); he maintains a frequent presence on the podium as guest conductor. He also regularly guest-conducts the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, having been invited to conduct three different programs in the 2017/18 season alone, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Québec, Trois-Rivières, Saskatoon, Guelph, and Thunder Bay symphony orchestras, as well as Symphony Nova Scotia. Internationally he has conducted the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and members of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchestre Hamburg.

In 2015, Adam Johnson received the prestigious Jean-Marie-Beaudet Award for Orchestral Conducting from the Canada Council for the Arts, and recently won an OPUS award for best youth concert of 2018. He holds a Doctorate in Piano Performance from the Université de Montréal and a Prize in Orchestral Conducting from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. He also pursued additional training in conducting at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Pierre Monteux School in Maine, USA.