Erik Johnson-Scherger was raised in the countryside around Kingston, Ontario, and completed a Master’s of Music from the University of Ottawa in 2019 where he studied with Yehonatan Berick and Yosuke Kawasaki. Erik also holds an undergraduate degree and Diploma in Chamber Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, completed in 2016/17, where he studied with Jerzy Kaplanek and other members of the Penderecki String Quartet in addition to studying improvisation with Kathryn Ladano. Erik performs classical, jazz, and folk violin and mandolin, and plays in the chamber-jazz quartet Side-Eye & Grace, who released their sophomore album Illuminate in 2022. Erik is also a member of the Ottawa chapter of Ensemble Allure, a contemporary chamber collective, and is very grateful to have served as the violin soloist for the Canadian premiere of Tyler’s Suite in 2019. Erik has performed with the Kingston and Ottawa Symphony Orchestras as a substitute section violinist and mandolinist, given concerts of avante-garde and improvised music with the NUMUS String Orchestra and Improv Ensemble, and has worked as sideman, session musician, and/or bandleader for country, rock, disco/R&B, celtgrass, and jazz projects. In his spare time, Erik enjoys baking cookies, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and looking at pictures of cute dogs on his phone.