A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul Johnston is active as performer, teacher, and composer. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with highest distinction, and at Indiana University, where he completed a Master's Degree in jazz studies and a Performer Diploma in piano. While at Indiana, he worked with legendary pedagogue David Baker and won awards for performance and composition. Paul is at home in a wide variety of musical styles and has performed with artists including Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Nancy Wilson, Monica Mancini, and Bernadette Peters. He is also a member of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra, a professional jazz ensemble in residence at Cleveland State University. Soloists, chamber groups, and jazz ensembles from across the country have performed his compositions and arrangements, and Alfred Music has published several collections of Paul's solo jazz piano arrangements. He has served on the faculty of Eastern Illinois University since 2004, directing a jazz band, coaching combos, and teaching jazz piano, improvisation, and arranging. Paul also taught for eight summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and is an alumnus of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute and the Henry Mancini Instute.