Conductor Jon Bara Johansen

The Norwegian conductor Jon Bara Johansen was born in 1952. He received his musical education at the Østlandets Musikkonservatorium and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

With a scholarship for studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music in the conducting class of Prof. Arvid Jansons and Mariss Jansons he completed his final examination in orchestral conducting. After his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic and Assistant to GMD Jesús López Cobos at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he conducted many leading symphonic orchestras all over Europe, where he also led numerous opera and ballet performances.

In his all-embracing concert activities he was, and is, also a guest in Berlin. Here he conducted among others at the Komische Oper, led the Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin as well as the Deutsche Kammerorchester. Several times he was guest conductor in the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2004 he founded the Residenz Orchester Berlin, which recruited highly accomplished and internationally well qualified instrumentalists from the Berlin University of the Arts. He led the orchestra right up to its dissolving in 2015.

As well as the international symphonic core repertoire, he worked closely with well-known modern composers and led many premiers on new works. He presented numerous contemporary works of Norwegian composers abroad.

In recent years Johansen had an especially close artistic relationship with the Berlin composer Prof. Karl Heinz Wahren (1933-2021). In 2015 he led the first performance of Wahren’s Requiem for Prof. Fritz-Rudolf Güntsch with the Residenz Orchester Berlin in the St. Gotthard Church in Brandenburg an der Havel. In 2018, he led the first performance of Wahren’s ‘Rostocker Jubilee Cantata with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie and Opern Choir Rostock in the Rostocker Volkstheater in honour of 800 years Hansesatic City, and 600 years University Town. Since 2019, Jon Bara Johansen is a Member of Honour of the Pro Arte Künstlerakademie in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Jon Bara Johansen lives in Oslo and Berlin.

Memorial Concert for Karl Heinz Wahren (1933-2021)

Jon Bara Johansen conducts Brandenburger Symphoniker in Brandenburger Theater, 24.09.2022

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major K.551. «Jupiter»

Jon Bara Johansen conducts The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in the National Philharmonic Hall in Kyiv, 28.03.1998