CCM voice professor Amy Johnson releases 'Portrait of an Artist'

UC College-Conservatory of Music Associate Professor of Voice Amy Johnson released her first solo album, Portrait of an Artist, this summer. The album showcases Johnson’s wide range of vocal abilities and features works in six languages, including four pieces that have never been featured on professionally-released albums.

Lauded by the New York Times as “an intelligent artist" who "sings with confidence and impassioned lyricism,” the acclaimed soprano’s debut album has been in the works for several years. Each work on Portrait of an Artist is excerpted from an opera, including Wagner’s Die Walküre, Strauss’s Salome and Massenet’s Thaïs. Johnson portrays a wide range of characters, including a self-doubting courtesan, a charismatic servant of God and a disturbingly depraved teenager fulfilling a macabre last wish.

In recording the album, Johnson collaborated with Hungary’s MÁV Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Steven Mercurio, as well as guest vocal artists Emily Langford Johnson, Melissa Primavera and CCM Visiting Assistant Professor of Opera Vernon Hartman. Additionally, a cadre of Johnson’s students sang the necessary chorus parts.

When asked about the standout parts of the recording process for this album, Johnson says, “Everything stands out." 

She notes a few highlights: "Stephen Schwartz coaching me. Schwartz and Mercurio discussing the orchestration of his piece. Maestro Mercurio’s steady, meticulous preparation, including obtaining hard to find orchestral parts from the Met, and the incredible musicians of the MAV orchestra. They weren’t used to soloists speaking to them! The day we recorded Kát’a Kabanová, the featured violist was so excited. He proudly showed me his bleeding fingers from practicing his solo so much, and he thanked me for the opportunity to play this great music.”

Story by CCM Graduate Student Alexandra Doyle