Ken Johnston was born in Glasgow, brought up in Aberdeen and now lives and works in East Lothian. As a composer and arranger Ken has a particular interest in choral music and has written many pieces for youth and adult choirs. These include arrangements of traditional Scottish songs, carols for Christmas and original works for upper or mixed voices.
In recent years he has been commissioned to write works for the National Youth Choir of Scotland, BBC Proms in the Park, the Edinburgh Quartet, Hadley Court Singers, Cadenza, Aberdeen Bach Choir and Farnham Youth Choir. For NYCoS Ken has written songs for all six of the NYCoS songbooks in the series Singbronze, Singsilver and Singgoldand for the recent publication of songs with 3,4 or 5 notes. In 2008 NYCoS published I Landed with Seven Men a cantata of Scots songs telling the story of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion with narration by Jim Maxwell. The original cantata was for unison voices with optional second part. Ken has now arranged the piece for SATB. Both versions can be purchased from NYCoS online shop. Ken's music has also been published by Roberton and Boosey & Hawkes. You can make enquiries about all of Ken's music via NYCoS.
In recent years he has been commissioned to write works for the National Youth Choir of Scotland, BBC Proms in the Park, the Edinburgh Quartet, Hadley Court Singers, Cadenza, Aberdeen Bach Choir and Farnham Youth Choir. For NYCoS Ken has written songs for all six of the NYCoS songbooks in the series Singbronze, Singsilver and Singgoldand for the recent publication of songs with 3,4 or 5 notes. In 2008 NYCoS published I Landed with Seven Men a cantata of Scots songs telling the story of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion with narration by Jim Maxwell. The original cantata was for unison voices with optional second part. Ken has now arranged the piece for SATB. Both versions can be purchased from NYCoS online shop. Ken's music has also been published by Roberton and Boosey & Hawkes. You can make enquiries about all of Ken's music via NYCoS.