Mark Johnston, born 1986, is a versatile and widely experienced musician with accomplishments in a variety of musical settings. Beyond his skill as a violinist, he is versed as a violist; as a collaborative pianist; as a conductor; and as a composer. Recognition of Mark's accomplishments dates from 1996, when in the span of a year he won the first of two Royal Conservatory of Music silver medals and Espace Musique Ottawa's Young Composers Competition, Anagnoson and Kinton premièring his entry. He was third prize winner in Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary competition in 2006 and an inaugural leadership scholarship winner with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2010. In May 2011, he won the Via Salzburg Emerging Composer Competition. Since 2012, Mark has been the conductor of the Fellbach Chamber Orchestra, located near Stuttgart, Germany. He has also conducted in concerts of Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra and the Regent Park School of Music children's choir, both in Toronto, and the Banff Centre's Music for a Summer Evening series, and in rehearsal the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and Royal Conservatory Orchestra. As part of his conducting studies he has conducted the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and Stuttgart HochschulSinfonieOrchester. Engagements in 2012-13 include recitals, chamber music concerts, and orchestra projects on violin across Germany and abroad, and performances of his music in Germany, Canada, and the United States. He has been a member of Stuttgart-based Asamblea Mediterranea since 2012. Mark graduated with a Master of Music in violin in July 2012 at the State Conservatory for Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart, studying with Kolja Lessing, and will complete his Master of Music in conducting at the same institution in July 2013, studying with Per Borin. He graduated with an Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto in June 2010, where he studied violin with Mayumi Seiler. At the University of Toronto, where in 2008 he earned his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance with a minor in composition, he studied violin with Scott St. John and Annalee Patipatanakoon, composition with Christos Hatzis, Gary Kulesha, and Alexander Rapoport, piano with James Parker, and conducting with Raffi Armenian and Ivars Taurins. Mark previously studied in Ottawa with John Gomez on violin, Jean Desmarais and Gilles Comeau on piano, and Steven Gellman in composition. He is also doubly an Associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Examination curriculum, earning this distinction in 2004 in violin and piano performance.