Photo by April Josie Photography

Percussionist
    PhD Candidate at Monash University
        Pre-Tertiary and Tertiary Tutor

Niki Johnson is a percussionist and composer-performer whose musical practice incorporates contemporary classical repertoire, improvisation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and performance art. Niki holds a Bachelor of Percussion Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is a current PhD Candidate at Monash University. Her research explores percussionists' collaborations with sculptors and designers, and the process of co-creating, and composing for new sculptural instruments. Niki teaches at Monash University running the 2022, Semester 2 and 2023 Semester 1, undergraduate percussion ensemble, and is a percussion tutor in Sydney.

Niki was a 2019-2022 Speak Percussion Bespoke Artist, and a 2021 Classical Freedman nominee. She performs with Ensemble Offspring, is the co-artistic director of performance art duo Throat Pleats, and has recorded percussion for Trackdown Fox studios, and the ABC. Current project highlights include performing Damien Ricketson's Sound Touch for solo percussionist, performed at Phoenix Central Park, Sydney.


Niki Johnson lives and works in Warrang/Sydney on unceded Cammeraygal and Gadigal land, and in Naarm/Melbourne on the unceded land of the Eastern Kulin Nation. She acknowledges all First Peoples of these lands and recognizes and respects their enduring art, connections to Country, and knowledge.