Johnny Taylor
Waltons New School of Music Faculty
Piano • Jazz Piano • Jazz Theory & Improvisation
Johnny was born in London and studied classical piano and clarinet from a young age, playing in orchestras and receiving an ABRSM diploma in piano performance. After moving to Ireland, he studied music at Trinity College Dublin, where he was elected a Music Scholar and graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 2006. After studying with a scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Johnny returned to Dublin and began playing jazz full time. He currently leads his own piano trio as well as playing and recording regularly with the groups of several notable Irish musicians, including Mary Coughlan, Nigel Mooney, Linley Hamilton, Aoife Doyle and Loah. One of the finest jazz pianists (as well as one of the busiest musicians) on the Irish music scene, Johnny regularly performs in Dublin and around Ireland and has performed at major festivals in the US, the Caribbean, other European countries and the Middle East. He has taught with the New School since 2007.
‘Having benefited and been inspired by so many wonderful teachers over the years – people I’ve studied with, people I’ve played with, musical heroes whom I love and whose music enriches my life – I consider myself honoured and fortunate now to be in a position to share the knowledge and experience I have and continue to accrue with others through my teaching work. For the most part I work with students in the realm of improvised music, ear-training, playing without sheet music, all the while dismantling the notion that “you either have it or you don’t”. As a wise improvising musician once said, you must first learn the rules and then forget them.’
Johnny’s free improvisation to the animated short film Three for Four by Shane McKenna.