Mr. Johnson was a musician. Early piano lessons that began in Fayetteville with Marguerite Settle and in Oak Hill with Mrs. George Waldo were continued at the Mason School of Music in Charleston where he studied piano, composition and orchestration with Walter Bricht. He continued his musical education at the Eastman School of Music [ESM], where he studied piano with Sandor Vas, married fellow ESM student Janis Marilyn Johnson (1950), earned the Bachelor of Music and Performer’s Certificate (1949), the Music Literature and Artist Diploma (1951), for which he gave the first Rochester performance of Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto, and Doctor of Musical Arts (1961). A Fulbright scholar (1952-1953), he studied piano with Yves Nat at the Conservatoire de Paris and received ensemble coaching from George Enesco. After his return from France, he was appointed official pianist of the Rochester Philharmonic under Erich Leinsdorf. From 1954-1965, in addition to three nation-wide concerto broadcasts (Bartok Second and Third, Shostakoviitch) with the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra under Guy Fraser Harrison, he taught piano, gave recitals, and composed music for cast-bell carillon at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. During his tenure at KU, in recognition of his carillon compositions, he was given an Honorary Membership in the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America [GCNA]. An excerpt from his first carillon composition, “Summer Fanfares,” (1956) appeared in the Grove’s Dictionary of Music article by Percival Price, the only 20th century piece quoted. Almost all of his carillon compositions are published by GCNA, many are now in the standard repertoire for the instrument. In 1965, his academic activities moved to the University of Maryland, College Park, from which he retired as Professor emeritus in 1992. He and his wife moved to Fayetteville in 2005. During his 40 years in the Washington DC area, he gave multiple critically acclaimed piano recitals at the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, and University of Maryland. He performed Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at the Kennedy Center with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, William Hudson conducting. During the Bi-Centennial, he and his wife gave many joint recitals devoted to the music of Virginian John Powell. Johnson’s highly successful LP CRI recording of Powell’s piano music is available in CD format, as is his Oxford University Press performance edition of one of that composer’s massive piano sonatas. In 2017, he completed an Urtext edition of that composition which is now available from the International Piano Archives at Maryland [IPAM]. In 2002, in recognition of his compositions for cast-bell carillon, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and in 2016, he was inducted into the Fayette County Wall of Honor.
