I present in this portfolio a number of projects that exemplify not only my level of mastery in the field of classical music performance, and not just the depth of my artistic exploration in that field, but also the unique vision of music as a bridge between artist and instrument, artist and composer, members of a performing ensemble, performers and audience; and not least, between performer and self.

Pianists who can grasp and master the particular challenges of orchestral piano playing are uncommon.  Stellar soloists and even accomplished chamber musicians often have difficulty with the very unique ensemble skills that are required. Furthermore, everything an orchestral pianist plays is a solo, making the position a unique nexus point between finely honed ensemble skills and soloistic virtuosity.

Many pianists are unused to following a conductor's beat patterns, particularly when they can change so dramatically from one music director to the next.  

Another challenge is the difference in sound production between the piano and  the other instruments in the orchestra - the piano produces immediate and instantaneous sound, while wind and string instruments have more cushion and delay to the beginning of their sound, as the breath or the bow connect with the air column or string. These differences in sound production result in necessary adjustments on the part of the orchestral pianist, so as to play in perfect synchronicity with the ensemble.

Another issue is distance: since light travels faster than sound, and the piano is normally placed physically in the back of the orchestra, playing directly with the beat one sees can cause a pianist to sound ahead of the other instruments. All of these issues combine to create a musical puzzle that is always different and always has a different solution. 

Furthermore, pianists do not train for these challenges. Since any given orchestra generally has need for only one pianist, most don’t even consider orchestral playing in the constellation of activities they might pursue as a professional musician. I was fortunate to discover, about ten years ago, that I have a particular knack for this kind of adaptive, flexible, connective playing. Marin Alsop's first day on the job at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was my first as well. The challenge has been remarkably rewarding.

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Ms. Johnson is the Resident Pianist of the Baltimore Symphony. She has been performing with the ensemble regularly since September 2007, when she played her first concert with the symphony under the baton of Maestra Marin Alsop. She continues on in her position now, as the BSO navigates the first season under new Music Director Jonathon Heyward. She has collaborated extensively in orchestral performances with Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Leila Josefowicz, Joshua Bell, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Pinchas Zukerman, the St. Lawrence String Quartet and has performed with the orchestra on 5 commercial recordings released by the symphony:

1. Leonard Bernstein's Mass, which was nominated for a Grammy award.  Ms. Johnson played principal keyboard and organ on this recording.  Released 2009, Naxos label.

2. Mark O'Connor's Americana Symphony. Released 2008 on O'Connor's private label.

3. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays Gershwin Concertos with the Baltimore Symphony. Ms. Johnson played orchestra piano in the Concerto in F.  Released April 2010, Decca label.

4. Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.  Released 2012, Naxos label.

5. Bernstein Symphonies #1 and 2.  Ms. Johnson played piano on Symphony No. 1.  Released 2016, Naxos label.

 

The Art of Prelude and Fugue, a mammoth and visionary solo project, is a first-of-its-kind curation of the entire Well-Tempered Clavier of J.S. Bach interspersed with the complete Preludes and Fugues of Dmitri Shostakovich, with an emphasis on the striking connections and synthesis between the works.

The music of these two musical geniuses is highly complex, deeply contemplative, and rigorously structured. Yet each work transcends the boundaries it embraces, transporting us to a realm of the most spiritual kind. While challenging us to comprehend its incredible complexity, the music also offers us a place of stillness, serenity, and deep reflection. It is not just beautiful. It is significant. It contributes to our cultural fabric and illuminates our humanity.

In 1722, celebrated Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a set of contrapuntal exercises called Preludes and Fugues, one in each major and minor key of the twelve-step chromatic scale. This systematic series of intellectual and technical keyboard exercises was intended “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” Some 20 years later Bach composed a second book of the same kind, which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Together the books represent some of the most important pieces of music literature in the Western musical tradition. The 19th century conductor Hans von Bülow called it “the Old Testament” of piano music; Robert Schumann described it as “daily bread.”

Two centuries later, Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich traveled to Germany to serve as president of the jury for the first Bach competition. All competitors were required to present one prelude and fugue of Bach; when Tatiana Nikolayeva took the stage, she informed the jury she was prepared to play any one of the set of forty-eight compositions. Dumbfounded, they selected one; she played it, won the competition, and began a lifelong friendship with Shostakovich. Shortly upon his return to Saint Petersburg, Shostakovich was inspired to write his own set of preludes and fugues, which Tatiana Nikolayeva championed, performing and recording the cycle multiple times throughout her life.

Many pianists have performed and recorded the complete Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach. Only a handful have performed and recorded the entire opus of Shostakovich’s preludes and fugues. A few have built concerts using excerpts from both works. But no one has performed both monumental cycles in their entirety—until now.

One of the most remarkable aspects of J.S. Bach’s keyboard music is the dearth of extramusical instruction. Bach offers next to no indications of tempo, dynamics, or articulations. Rather than being prescriptive, Bach gives us a blank canvas. The performer is an interpreter responsible for huge amounts of the musical decision making, yielding personal and individualistic performances that vary immensely from one artist to the next. The music emerges from any interpretation unassaulted and unblemished. It transcends any one performer’s voice.

Though Shostakovich provides significantly more instruction to the performer than Bach, he, too, leaves much to the performer. His music finds a similar potency through complexity masked as simplicity. Both composers rely almost entirely on a Baroque compositional technique known as counterpoint to carry the weight of their message.

Presenting these two works interstitially is both shockingly unorthodox and a most natural partnership. The curation both contextualizes an exceedingly well-known work and brings to greater attention a lesser known masterpiece.

Phase One of this project was the live performance of the entire curation; I presented more than eight hours of music in a series of four concerts that took place at Baltimore's Peabody Institute of Music during the 2018-19 season. The forty-eight Bach Preludes and Fugues I performed in order. Shostakovich’s twenty-four I interspersed throughout where homage is present, even obvious. Response to these concerts was huge; audiences were transfixed. One listener wrote, "The programming here is fabulous, but the success of the concerts is also due to Ms. Johnson's bravery at the keyboard... Ms. Johnson looks to present each prelude and fugue with an individual sonic and emotional spirit... a disciplined performer, she somehow manages to exude both emotion and reserve simultaneously."

Documentary filmmakers Scott Meyers and Ali Walton created a video portrait dedicated to my work as an artist and to this project in particular which is included in this portfolio.
 

Phase Two included a series of residencies at music schools and departments around the country. These residencies included recitals with accompanying lectures, masterclasses, and clinics. Rice University's Shepherd School of Music hosted the first residency in Fall 2019. 
 

Phase Three has been the recording of the entire project for commercial release. Lura spent 41 hours in the recording studio between November 2021 and and March 2022 to produce a high quality recording that will be released during the 2024 calendar year. The entire curation will be released digitally on all platforms, with a a limited edition “Best Of” two-disc box set showcasing highlights. Bonus materials will include program notes for historical context and a listening guide designed to illuminate the creative process. One audience member described the listening guide as "profoundly illuminating... I've never been to another concert in which a musician makes their thought process available to the audience, and I noticed a real difference in my ability to engage with the music on an intellectual level." (Example attached.)

Classical music hallows its past. We cherish our heritage, revere the great composers who founded and fostered our tradition, and consequently create the impression that we function as a museum that presents only old works by composers who have been gone from us for hundreds of years. In fact, classical music is alive and teeming with exciting music that represents our time. This music of now has diverged quite far, in many cases, from the style of the old beloved masters, and for some performers it lies outside their comfort zone. Since my early teens when I was first exposed to freshly composed works, I have been attracted to and comfortable in this medium. Rather than connecting with a text, the performance of new music offers a performer the opportunity to connect directly with its author, to receive suggestions and feedback straight from the horse's mouth, to learn the composer's intentions from the source. How many times do musicians long for the opportunity to ask Beethoven a question about tempo, or Bach a question about articulation? In the world of new music, all such questions can be answered.

My work as a performer of new music connects me not just to individual composers but to the musical and artistic landscape of my society as an integral and vibrant member of its arts community.

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Ms. Johnson has performed, commissioned, and recorded new music for the 17 years, as a member of the Towson New Music Ensemble, in residence at Towson University, and  Verge Ensemble, the oldest running contemporary music group in Washington D.C. She has collaborated on five recordings featuring contemporary classical music compositions:

1. Premiering Greg Bullen’s Piano Concerto, The Water is Wide, with the Adesso Chamber Orchestra, BMA, 2023.

2. Premiering Greg Bullen’s Violin Sonata at the BMA in 2023 with Netanel Draiblate.

3. Complete Flute Music of George Rochberg, released in March 2015 on American Classics (Ms. Johnson performed Rochberg's Between Two Worlds, for flute and piano with Christina Jennings, flute)

4. Music of Jeffrey Mumford, released in January 2014 on Albany Records (Ms. Johnson commissioned and performed Mumford's evolving romance for flute and piano with Christina Jennings, flute)

5. New Paths: Music of composer Lawrence Moss, released in November 2011 on Innova Recordings (Ms. Johnson performed the song cycle From the Chinese with soprano Kathryn Hearden)

6. Mark O'Connor's American Symphony, self-released in 2008 by Mark O'Connor (Ms. Johnson performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestra Marin Alsop)

7. Night Music by Karen Amrhein, self-released in 2008 by Karen Amrhein (Ms. Johnson performed Amrhein's solo set Dance Card)