Peter Wyllie Johnston is an Australian writer and composer of light music.  He is currently writing the history of the Australian musical 1900-2000.

A double CD, international cast recording of Peter’s first full length musical (music and lyrics), Moses-the Spirit of Freedom, is due to be recorded in 2011, after a rigorous, seven-year period of development. The first version of the musical was performed in London in a workshop mounted by Wild Thyme Productions, and later, in New York, where it was produced by Dolphin in the West and Shenval Music Australia. These performances were followed by a concert of excerpts at the Barossa International Festival of Music (2002), conducted by Timothy Sexton, and a series of sold-out performances of the complete musical at the Ford Theatre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre in 2004. Beginning with the London workshop, Julian Kershaw (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Last King of Scotland, Notting Hill etc.) continued to orchestrate the score of Moses-the Spirit of Freedom throughout the long process of development, making revisions and changes to it as required.

Peter Wyllie Johnston has performed for many years in piano bars and cabaret in New York, London, Washington DC, Honolulu, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide. His cabaret work includes Of Things Australian which was produced for two seasons at The Firebird Café in Manhattan in 2000, Fewster and King at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (2005) and Kenneth Duffield-From Saints to the West End at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival of 2007.

Peter was born in Australia, studied the piano from the age of five and sang with the Australian Opera company for several years as a boy soprano. He produced his first composition (A Waltz in E Minor) at the age of twelve and, at fourteen, wrote the score for the short Australian feature film Girl On The Boulevard (1975). As a teenager he was greatly encouraged by the composer Bruce Smeaton (whose 85 film scores include Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Devil’s Playground and Roxanne). In 1989, Peter was elected as a Full Composer Member of the Australasian Performing Right Association.

His writing credits include numerous articles and reviews on music published in the Sunday Age, The Melburnian, Opera Australasia, Soundscapes, On Stage and www.artshub.com. His next publication is From The Melburnian, a collection of articles on music, for publication in 2010.