Biography:
About Craig Randal Johnson

Craig Johnson is a Minneapolis-based conductor, piano recitalist, and string bassist, often specializing in Finnish as well as American music.

Mr. Johnson is Music Director and Organizer for the Finn Grand Fest Gala Concert in Marquette, MI, on August 11 2005. Works to be performed include the Sibelius Fifth Symphony, the Atso Almila "Main paras vaif" (James Koenig, baritone soloist, plus chorus), and the world-premiere performance of Finnish composer Jukka Linkola's new Concerto for Double Bass (Evan Premo, soloist; Linkola conducts the concerto).

Additionally, Craig Johnson is Music Director/Conductor for the Superior Festival Orchestra's upcoming 2005 summer season, which will feature the Brahms Second Symphony, "Rakastava" by Sibelius, and works by Nielsen, Beethoven, and Grieg. Performances will be in late July and early August in Marquette and Escanaba, MI. On June 7 2005, Craig Johnson will accompany Evan Premo in a bass/piano presentation of the new Linkola bass concerto at the International Society of Bassists Convention in Kalamazoo, MI. He also appears as double bassist with the Arius Chamber Ensemble in Minneapolis.

Recent conducting appearances include the 2002 Finnfest Symphony Orchestra Concert at Finnfest USA in Minneapolis, which featured works of Sibelius, Rautavaara, and the world-premiere performance of Kari Tikka's "Threnos". In 2004, he conducted the Arius Chamber Symphony (Minneapolis) and the Superior Festival Orchestra (Vulcan Fine Arts Center, Norway MI).

Craig Johnson worked in varying capacities for six years in German opera houses and theaters, serving as music director for large-scale Brecht productions of "Caucasian Chalk Circle" and "Schweyk in the Second World War" at the Osnabrück opera, amongst several others. He was Resident Conductor of the Rome Festival Orchestra in Italy for three seasons, conducting symphony concerts and opera in Rome, The Vatican, Anzio, Naples, Syracuse, and several other cities. He conducted 44 children's concerts with the Florida Symphony. Additional conducting appearances have been with the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony, North Star Opera, the Metropolitan Symphony, and the College Light Opera Co (MA). A conducting student of Otmar Suitner, Bernard Rubenstein, Charles Bruck, and Richard Burgin, Mr. Johnson's theater and concert performances have been favorably reviewed by the Rome Daily American, l'Umanità, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Neue Osnabrüker Zeitung, and others. (See Reviews.)

As Finlandia Foundation "Performer of the Year" in 1999, Craig Johnson played Finnish piano recitals in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, at Finlandia University, Illinois Wesleyan University, the Hartt School in Hartford, at the Canterbury (CT) Finn Hall, and elsewhere. Other recital appearances have included appearances in Hannover as well as in Magdeburg, Hildesheim, and Templin in Germany, the Landmark Series and at Sundin Hall in St. Paul (MN), the University of Iowa Center for New Music, SE Louisiana University, Finnfest 2002 in Minneapolis, Finnfest 1997 in Minot ND, the 'Rock' Church in Helsinki, and the new 'Raahesali' in Raahe, Finland. More recently, he has played recitals at the Hartt School (Hartford, Sept. 2004) and Southwest State University (Marshall MN, Nov. 2004). These programs featured works by American composer David Macbride, as part of an Encore Grant from the American Composers Forum. Other composers represented were Libby Larsen, Judith Shatin, Aarre Merikanto, Erik Bergman, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Hanns Eisler.

A specialist on the music of the German composer Hanns Eisler, Johnson appeared as a soloist on the Eisler Centenary Gala Performance in New York City. He has performed two evenings with the dramatist Eric Bentley and baritone David Harris on WNYC public radio in New York, presenting Eisler songs and Lieder. He has presented Eisler programs in Madison, River Falls, Hartford, and Hannover, Germany. Craig Johnson was music director for the Brecht show "For Those Who Come After", which featured songs by Eisler, Wolpe, Milhaud, and Weill (summers 1997 and 1998 in Minneapolis).

Craig Johnson holds degrees from the University of Minnesota (B.A.) and Northwestern University in Evanston, IL (M.M.), and has studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Domaine Conducting School, and the Aspen Music School. He was Principal String Bassist of the Florida Symphony early in his career, and has played string bass with several other orchestras in Europe and the USA. He recently served as rehearsal pianist and prompter for the "Luther" Opera composed by Kari Tikka, presented in October 2001 at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis by the Luther Reformation Festival in conjunction with the Finnish National Opera. Mr. Johnson is accompanist for the Augsburg Masterworks Chorale. In 2003-2004, he served as repetitor/accompanist for the Fargo-Moorhead Opera productions of "Cosi fan tutte", "l'Elisor d'Amore", and "Madama Butterfly".

Craig Johnson has received three Finlandia Foundation grants to further the performance of Finnish music, as well as an earlier American Composers Forum Performance Incentive Fund grant, underwritten by the Knight Foundation. He maintains a private piano studio and teaches piano in the Bloomington (MN) Community Education-Musical Avenues program. He lives in Minneapolis with Marjory Black, a French hornist, French horn teacher, and leading Solfege instructor in the region.

Craig Johnson's new CD, "Piano Music from Finland", is now available from Tonttu Productions.