Sharon Johnson

Assistant Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano

E-mail: sharon.johnson@houghton.edu
Phone: 585.567.9405

Pianist Sharon Johnson has been heard with the Greensboro Symphony and the Greensboro Philharmonia; in guest artist recitals at the North Carolina Museum of Art and Dickinson State University; First Friday series in Wooster, Ohio; the Baltimore Composers Forum in Maryland; and at the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series. She is actively involved in the premieres of new works on a regular basis: in fall 2003, she gave the Minnesota premiere of Ned Rorem's chamber work, Aftermath. Along with baritone, David Klassen, she initiated a new concert series for young artists in Steinbach, Manitoba.

Miss Johnson gave the world premiere of Juliana Hall's Peacock Pie (for solo piano) as well as Hall's Songs of Enchantment (with soprano, Carrie Shaw) at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. She has performed in recital with Immanuel Davis, Jean del Santo, and Clifton Ware. Miss Johnson served as invited pianist for the master classes of Keith Underwood at the University of Minnesota, and Eugene Rousseau at Shell Lake, Wisconsin. In addition she has served as one of the official accompanists for the International Tuba/Euphonium Conference and the International Double Reed Society Conference (including the world premiere of Richard Faith's Trio for Bassoon, Oboe, and Piano). As primary keyboard/assistant director of the Continental Singers she has toured the United States, Asia, and Europe. Her performances in master classes and coachings include Nathaniel Rosen, Alexa Still, Emmanuel Pahud, Sherrill Milnes, Håkan Håkagaard, Martin Isepp, Martin Amlin, Ken Griffiths, Anne Epperson, Jean Barr, Zvi Zeitlin and Pierre Vallet. Miss Johnson has been heard on Minnesota Public Radio as pianist for the Ted Mann Vocal Quartet.

In addition to recital collaborations with colleagues, Miss Johnson is one half of the duo piano team, Music By Two, with pianist Nancy Davis. Their repertoire includes compositions that range in style from romantic to 20th century to sacred. Since the spring of 2005, Music By Two has given multiple premieres of Eric Ewazen’s Sonata for Two pianos.  During 2007, the duo gave the North Carolina premiere of an unpublished work by Lowell Liebermann (Three Lullabies, Op. 76); in addition, a re-discovered four-hand piano work by Louise Talma was premiered in a concert at The Library of Congress, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the MacDowell Colony.  Music By Two will be featured in their first CD project during summer 2008.  Recently, Miss Johnson has formed a partnership with saxophonist Chisato Eda. They perform together as Duo du Soleil.

Educated at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Miss Johnson received both the Bachelor and Masters degrees in piano performance. She has held faculty positions at Greensboro College as coach/accompanist for the opera workshop productions; The Music Center of Greensboro, as a private instructor; Director/Instructor at the Wesleyan Institute of Music and Arts; and as faculty member of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Summer Piano Camp; and charter faculty member of the Vivace String Camp (piano/collaborative faculty). Professor Johnson is near completion of her DMA (ABD) in accompanying and coaching from the University of Minnesota with Margo Garrett and Tim Lovelace, where she was a teaching assistant and Denny Scholar. Her dissertation (in progress) examines text choice/setting in the music of Judith Zaimont, Libby Larsen, and Juliana Hall. Miss Johnson is assistant professor of piano and collaborative piano at Houghton College.

Courses: Practical Keyboard, Music in Worship, Collaborative Piano, Collaborative Performance Practicum.