Australian/British flautist Naomi Johnson is a versatile and engaging performer with a particular interest in contemporary chamber repertoire. She seeks to engage with music on multiple levels, and is an active writer in addition to performance.

Naomi has performed with the Music Box Project, Melbourne University New Music Ensemble, Hopkins Sinfonia, Ensemble Offspring, and Melbourne’s Forest Collective as part of the 2014 Metropolis New Music Festival. In June 2016 she was invited to curate the performance piece Blackbird in the Garden with Forest Collective, and in 2017 will be curating performances with Sydney’s Music Box Project. In July 2013/14/15 she was invited to participate in the SoundSCAPE Composition and Performance Exchange in Maccagno, Italy. She has worked with composers from Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and enjoys performing on piccolo, alto and bass flutes. Increasingly active in commissioning new works, she is always keen to explore in new collaborative partnerships.

Naomi holds a Bachelor of Music (Honours, 2012), Diploma of French and Masters of Music (Performance, 2014) from the University of Melbourne, and as part of her undergraduate studies undertook a year-long exchange to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. She has studied with Andrew Macleod, Mardi McSullea and Liisa Ruoho, and with Trevor Wye as part of his six-month Flute Studio course in Kent, England. Her achievements have been recognised with an Australian Postgraduate Award, Melbourne University’s Donovan-Johnston Memorial Scholarship, a 2015 ArtStart grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, and a 2016 MATCH Funding Pledge from the Australian Cultural Fund.

In addition to performance, Naomi is active as a writer and blogger. Following studies in creative writing at the University of Melbourne, she was awarded the 2012 Australian Youth Orchestra’s Music Presentation Fellowship to gain experience working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Radio National’s Music Show and the Australian Music Centre. She has written program notes for the Sydney Symphony and Melbourne University orchestras, maintains a regular blog, and in 2012/13 wrote the libretto for the song cycle Weird by Melbourne-based composer Andrew Aronowicz.

Naomi  is currently engaged as a Music Programmer at ABC Classic FM. From 2012 to 2014 she was a regular presenter on Melbourne’s 3MBS radio station, and she is currently on the committee of the Flute Society of NSW. Outside her musical endeavours, Naomi is a keen marathon kayaker, speaks French, and in 2013/14 was a residential tutor at St Mary’s College, the University of Melbourne.