Born in Adelaide, Kynan was a boy chorister before pursuing composition, violin, and piano. He holds degrees from the Elder (University of Adelaide) and Sydney Conservatoriums, where he was a student of David Porcelijn, and studied in Israel with conductor Noam Sheriff as a Westfield Young Conductor of the Year. In 1997 he made his professional conducting debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and since then has conducted all of Australia’s major symphony orchestras. In 2000 he participated in the Kirill Kondrashin Masterclass, and was appointed Resident Assistant Conductor of the Israel Northern Symphony Orchestra and the Chinese National Symphony. He was also the South Australian Government’s Emerging Artist of the Year, earning a mentorship with Lothar Zagrosek at the Stuttgart Opera. In addition to many Australian orchestras, he has worked with the New Israeli Opera, the Dunedin Sinfonia (New Zealand) and the Limburg Symphony (Holland). Mr. Johns is one of four conductors who will participate in masterclasses with James Levine and Kurt Masur at the UBS Verbier Festival in Switzerland.