Jessica Johnson

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Maggie Di Sanza

Jessica Johnson is a professor of piano and piano pedagogy at the Mead Witter School of Music, UW-Madison.

Four world premieres of new works by 21st century composers — Serra Hwang, Elena Ruehr, Laura Schwendinger and Lawren Brianna Ware — are on the program for this recital by UW-Madison piano professor Jessica Johnson. Ruehr and Ware will also attend and introduce their works. This Mead Witter School of Music faculty concert also doubles as the closing event for the new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Festival on campus. Find out more about the composers and performing artists in the program, and find tickets at artsticketing.wisc.edu.

press release: $13 GA; students free (ticket required); $7 live stream

A celebration of 21st-century works by women performed on an alternatively-sized keyboard. ​The program features four world world premieres with three of the four composers in attendance. All works on the program are written in the 21st century. The four new commissions were recently written for Jessica Johnson (designated below with “world premiere”). The three composers will be talking briefly about their works prior to the performance. Find more info at https://www.deibfestival.com/closing-ceremony-jessica-johnson-recital

Jessica Johnson serves on the piano faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy, where in 2006, she was the recipient of UW-Madison’s prestigious Emil Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. Johnson frequently commissions and programs contemporary solo and chamber works, regularly performing with Sole Nero, a piano and percussion duo with Anthony Di Sanza, percussion An advocate for the adoption of the Donison-Steinbuhler (DS) Standard, offering alternatively sized piano keyboards, her upcoming recording features newly commissioned works by Serra Hwang, Elena Ruehr, Laura Schwendinger, and Brianna Ware, performed on the DS5.5™ (“7/8”) keyboard.

An active clinician, she has given workshops and presentations at the European Piano Teachers Association International Conference, World Piano Pedagogy Conference, ISME, MTNA, CMS, Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), Portland International Piano Festival, as well as held residencies at major universities and colleges throughout North America, Europe and China. Johnson has articles published in American Music Teacher, Piano Journal of the European Piano Teachers Association, Piano Magazine, and the Piano Pedagogy Forum. She is a three-time winner of American Music Teacher’s Article of the Year Award for “Feeling the Sound: Reflections on Claiming One’s Own Musical Voice” (2014), “The Art of Listening with Depth, Understanding, Flow and Imagery” (2007), and “Awakening Rhythmic Intuition and Flow in the Developing Pianist” (2019). Current research explores cross-modal, multi-sensory engagement in the creative process, musician wellness, and the impact of contemplative practices on making music joyfully.

A devoted teacher, Johnson’s students have secured teaching positions in North American, South America, Europe and Asia. Passionate about community engagement and arts outreach, she serves as Director of Piano Pioneers, a program that brings high quality piano instruction to low-income community members and at-risk youth in Wisconsin. She holds the DMA and MM from the University of Michigan, and the BM from East Carolina University.