Liz Dilnot Johnson
composer, co-muser, collaborator, innovator
creating
music, sound, theatre, dance
‘stunning’
John France Musicwebinternational Intricate Web Review
‘she has an extraordinary intuition for what works’
Jeffrey Skidmore OBE
Liz Dilnot Johnson is a British composer who lives on the beautiful Malvern Hills, Herefordshire. Her music encompasses a wide range from exquisite miniatures to expansive multi-dimensional works. As composer-in-residence with Ex Cathedra and with regular commissions from the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, her music is featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and performed all over the world. Johnson’s music is published by Composers Edition
2024 is Liz’s 60th birthday year and this is being celebrated by a range of live events, films and album releases. The UK tour of her String Quartet No. 5 Borderlands by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet (commissioned with support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation). Liz’s latest commissions include On Malvern Hill for Camerata Tchaikovsky, London Viol Consort’s The Blue of Distance, and Nimrod Reimagined commemorating Elgar’s birthday for voices and harp, premiered in June 2024. Liz was composer for the Strange Futures ‘mesmerising’ production On The Bare Hill in May-June 2024.
Liz’s new recording of choral works on the Gentle Flame album includes the ‘monumental’ 10-part setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ extraordinary poem The Windhover, as well as Christmas carols including favourites A Wild Midwinter Carol and For This Babe and other music performed by Ex Cathedra at their magical candlelight concerts. Here’s a ‘behind-the-scenes’ video capturing music, interviews and fun moments during the recording. Gentle Flame includes the award-winning When A Child Is A Witness – a requiem for refugees (2022) that reinvents the traditional Requiem Mass to raise awareness of the plight of those seeking refuge, bringing communities and art forms together in a celebration of those who seek and offer sanctuary. Blurring the divide between performer and audience, this multifaceted work was premiered as part of Coventry City of Culture 2022 performed by Ex Cathedra at Coventry Cathedral. Soloists included Lucy Russell (violin and Hardanger fiddle) Kadiale Kouyate (West African kora) and Gabriella Liandu (mezzo-soprano).
Watch the performance here.
Winner of the @IvorsAcademy Ivor Novello Award in the Community & Participation 2022 @abrsm #TheIvorsComposerAwards
2023 saw commissions including Before the Ending of the Day for chamber orchestra, Rain for choir and piano, In The Mirror for cello and piano and The Space Between Heaven and Earth for basset horn and piano are both recently released.
Johnson’s large-scale works include I Stand At The Door - a cantata for our time (2021) for chorus and orchestra - ‘Johnson’s love-song to the planet’ (first released as Gentle Flame Cantata 2019), also featured in the award-winning music video Can You Hear Me? with texts by Greta Thunberg, Kurt Masur and David Hart.
Johnson’s debut double album Intricate Web (2017) features the ‘palpably exciting’ Clarinet Quintet Sea-change, six string quartets and the thirty-minute Cello Suite: ‘Johnson’s masterpiece so far’, along with songs setting words by Kathleen Jamie, Jo Shapcott and Gabriela Mistral.
Her collaborative project Scintilla explores interior and exterior worlds through poetry, music, live electronics, dance and film, working alongside choreographer Dane Hurst. Scintilla has been supported by Sound and Music’s New Voices scheme, Arts Council England, HMUK, PRSF and WildPlumArts.
Johnson’s mentors have included Judith Weir, Philip Cashian, Julian Phillips, Jonathan Harvey and Liz is currently mentored by Tess Howell.
