Jeff Johnston is a pianist, composer, and educator with a long-standing career in jazz and film music. For several decades, he has led his own groups and performed or recorded with artists including John Abercrombie, Slide Hampton, Kenny Wheeler, Sheila Jordan, Dave Liebman, Archie Shepp, and emerging voices such as Bjorn Solli and Ben Solomon. He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, and his work has been described by Jazz Times as “music that, while at the contemporary cutting edge, is also both immediately and immensely satisfying.”

From 1993 to 2025, he taught jazz piano, composition, and arranging at McGill University in Montreal, mentoring generations of Canadian jazz musicians. In 2025, he received a JUNO Award for his work as arranger and orchestrator on Deantha Edmunds’ Classical Composition of the Year, and he has been nominated multiple times for both JUNO and ECMA Awards as a bandleader and recording artist.

His most recent project, Terra Nova, is a 45-minute suite for jazz piano trio and string orchestra, featuring the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Sinfonia. Earlier this year, he recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, further exploring orchestral and cinematic music. Beyond jazz, Jeff is also an active film composer and has served on the board of directors of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, contributing to the development and advocacy of Canadian screen music.

In his formative years, Jeff studied jazz piano and composition with Richie Beirach in New York City. He holds a Master’s degree in Orchestration for Film, Games, and Television from Thinkspace Education/University of Chichester.

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