Kirsten Johnson
Pianist Kirsten Johnson specializes in the performance and recording of little-known American works. She is also a noted authority on Albanian music.
Johnson was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She attended Evangel University, an Assemblies of God-affiliated college in Missouri, and earned a bachelor's degree summa cum laude there. She went on for a master's at the University of North Texas and a doctorate at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, writing a dissertation on Albanian music. Johnson rounded out her education at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, studying under a Rotary International Foundation Scholarship, and in England, where she studied with Ronald Smith. In England, Johnson married and raised three children; she settled there in 1998 in the Oxford area and became a naturalized British citizen in 2002. In addition to her musical activities, Johnson was active until 2018 in Britain's Liberal Democrat Party and has served as a councillor for the Wheatley Division of Oxfordshire County. She is president of Fragile X International.
Two early Johnson albums were Këngë: Albanian Piano Music and Rapsodi: Albanian Piano Music, Vol. II, recorded in the 2000s decade. They appeared on the Guild label, which has issued more than half of Johnson's more than 20 albums; several have appeared on Centaur Records, and she devoted a pair of releases on Nimbus to the piano music of Dmitri Kabalevsky. Johnson also released albums devoted to Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen and Hermann Goetz before turning mostly to American music. The first fruits of her new concentration was a complete recording of the piano music of composer Amy Beach, released in four volumes after several years of research on Johnson's part. In 2013, she issued, on the Delos label, a three-CD box set of piano music by Arthur Foote, bringing a level of international to Foote that he had arguably not received previously. She has also recorded music by early American composers James Hewitt and Benjamin Carr. Johnson is a composer whose works have been heard in Oxford, Brussels, London (Union/Disunion, 2017, marking Britain's departure from the European Union), New York, and Boston. Her double album devoted to the piano music of Florence B. Price, released on Guild in 2022, contained 36 world premiere recordings.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Florence Price Piano Music
Classical - Released by Guild Music on Jun. 3, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carr: Piano Music
Classical - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on Jun. 4, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Patriotic Piano
Classical - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on Oct. 6, 2017
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beach: Fantasia, Les Rèves De Colombine, The Lotos Isles, A Hermit Thrush, From Grandmother's Garden
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Jan. 15, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arthur Foote: Complete Piano Music
Classical - Released by Delos on Aug. 6, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beach: Sketches & Mamma's Waltz, Menuetto, Romanza, Children's Carnival, Trois Morceaux Caractéristiques
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Nov. 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kabalevsky: Piano Pieces for Children Young & Old
Classical - Released by Nimbus Alliance on Jun. 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beach: Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60 - Children's Album, Op. 36 - Eskomos, Op. 64 and Others
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Feb. 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schulz-Beuthen: Drei, Vier Und Fünf Clavierstücke, Stimmungsbilder in Freier Walzerform, Abschieds-Klänge
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Mar. 31, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kabalevsky: A Recital of Concert Pieces
Classical - Released by Nimbus Alliance on Jun. 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Këngë - Albanian Piano Music
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Jan. 31, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
James Hewitt: Complete Works for Piano
Classical - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on Mar. 8, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Goetz: Lose Blätter, Op. 7, Genrebilder, Op. 13 - Schulz-Beuthen: Alhambra Sonata, Op. 34
Classical - Released by Guild GmbH on Mar. 31, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo