All Tickets: $10

PROGRAM:

Three Fantastic Dances - Dmitry Shostakovich
Klavierstucke, Op. 118 - Johannes Brahms
Turning (1995)- Derek Bermel
Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Minor, Op. 83 - Sergei Prokofiev

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Hailed as “brilliant” by the Washington Post, LURA JOHNSON enjoys a varied career as chamber musician, solo artist, orchestral musician, and teacher which has taken her across the US, England, France, and the Netherlands. She has been presented as a solo artist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Washington D.C.’s Phillips Collection and in various collaborations at the Kennedy Center, the Corcoran Gallery, the National Gallery, and Strathmore Music Center. Johnson was recently handpicked by legendary pianist and teacher Leon Fleisher to appear in recital at Carnegie Hall. Her performances have been broadcast on WETA’s Front Row Washington and WYPR’s Onstage with the BSO and she was featured in a live performance and interview on WVPR Vermont Public Radio and on Maryland Public Television’s Artworks This Week.

One of Baltimore/Washington’s most active chamber musicians, Ms. Johnson plays regularly in the Baltimore Symphony and is the recital partner of choice for many of its members, including concertmaster Jonathan Carney, with whom she presented the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas last season. She has collaborated with members of the Peabody Trio, members of the Corigliano, Brentano, Borromeo, Muir, and Fry Street String Quartets, and as a guest artist with the Garth Newel and Marian Anderson Quartets. As an orchestral musician she has worked with conductors Jahja Ling, Michael Stern, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Marin Alsop. In 2002 Johnson and award winning flutist Christina Jennings founded the Jennings-Johnson Duo, whose magnetic performances challenge the traditional hierarchy of soloist and accompanist. The Duo tours regularly throughout the US and released its first recording in January 2006 to critical acclaim. The American Record Guide writes of her playing, “rich, deep tone and impeccable technique… dazzling…” Flutist Quarterly declares, “Jennings and Johnson are truly a “duo”, a shared partnership of equal voices that are matched in musical understanding and approach to interpretation. Even when the flute is more prominently featured in the melodic line, the sensitive underpinning and comment by the piano accompaniment is sure and supportive. The inherent challenge of ensuring the listener does not miss the color of the original orchestral accompaniment is well met by Johnson.”

Johnson is a prominent member of the new music community, performing regularly with both the Towson New Music Ensemble and the Contemporary Music Forum’s VERGE Ensemble, the ground-breaking ensemble in residence at Washington’s Corcoran Gallery. The Washington Post writes, “[VERGE Ensemble] puts modern classical music in front of the public with more dedication and skill than any other group in Washington.” VERGE Ensemble was ensemble in residence at the 2009 June in Buffalo Festival for Contemporary Music in Buffalo, NY. Johnson earned top honors for best performance of a contemporary work at both the Garrison Competition and the International Russian Music Competition. She commissions and premieres new works, was recently a featured performer in a contemporary music festival in Paris, and recently premiered two new works at the Library of Congress in a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter.

Ms. Johnson holds degrees from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and went on to study with luminaries Leon Fleisher and Robert McDonald at the Peabody Institute. A native of Oberlin, Ohio and daughter of musical parents, she has served on the faculty of the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop and currently teaches at the Peabody Institute and Loyola College. When she isn’t at the piano, Lura enjoys both social and competitive ballroom and swing dancing.