Kristofer T. Johnson

Instructor in Music
Michael V. Forrestal '45 Chair for Music
Appointed
2013
Kris Johnson

Music offers us a way to map and experience our internal, emotional architecture. In choral singing particularly, we cooperate and commune with others in a profound way with the express purpose of bending our voices into something beautiful.

Education

M.Mus. University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign

B.M. Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Biography

Mr. Johnson developed a passion for choral music and singing as a young boy. By high school, he knew he would become a conductor and teacher. He was a performance major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and from there he went to the University of Illinois to study conducting. After earning his master’s, he taught at Canterbury School and Proctor Academy as well as Vanderbilt University. He performed as a conductor, soloist and chorister but primarily dedicated himself to his choir and voice students while making a study of vocal pedagogy, changing voices and vocal technique in the choral rehearsal. As music director of the Concord Chorale in New Hampshire, he has established a reputation for bold programming and expressive performances.

Mr. Johnson leads the Concert Choir, Men’s Chorus, Exeter Choral Union, Gli Scalatori and other vocal chamber ensembles. He teaches academic courses in music theory, music history and recital preparation. He also teaches private voice students and advises the five student-run a cappella groups. With his colleagues in the Music Department, he has led performance tours in the United States and abroad. He is affiliated with Gould House and supervises advanced music practice in the afternoons.

Happiest when singing, Mr. Johnson also finds great enjoyment at the piano, in the kitchen cooking, or out in the woods with his wife, Janine, and their two Chinook dogs. An avid reader with omnivorous literary tastes, he devours books and poetry from Shakespeare to sci-fi. He loves to travel, although most of his adventuring has been happily trotting the globe with student singers.