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Music Library: Bragg Artist-in-Residence: Graham Johnson

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Bragg Artist-in-Residence: Graham Johnson

The Mount Allison Department of Music welcomes renowned collaborative pianist, recording artist, and author Graham Johnson to the Conservatory as the 3rd annual Bragg Artist-in-Residence, March 8 to 11, 2022.  This artist residency is made possible by the Bragg Women Music Opportunities Fund, established in 2017 by Dr. John Bragg, Mount Allison alumnus and past Chancellor, and his wife Judy, also a Mount Allison graduate. 

For more information on the Bragg Artist-in-Residence and the Bragg Women Music Opportunities Fund, follow this link.

Graham Johnson

Graham Johnson is recognized as one of the world’s leading vocal accompanists. Born in Rhodesia, he came to London to study in 1967. After leaving the Royal Academy of Music his teachers included Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons. In 1972 he was the official pianist at Peter Pears’s first masterclasses at Snape Maltings, which brought him into contact with Benjamin Britten—a link that strengthened his determination to accompany. In 1976 he formed The Songmakers’ Almanac to explore neglected areas of piano-accompanied vocal music, and throughout his career he has maintained long and fruitful collaborations with many distinguished singers.

Graham Johnson’s relationship with Wigmore Hall in London is a special one. He devised and accompanied concerts in the hall’s re-opening series in 1992, and in its centenary celebrations in 2001. He is Senior Professor of Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and has led a biennial scheme for Young Songmakers since 1985. He has had a long and fruitful link with Hyperion, for whom he has devised and accompanied sets of the complete songs of Schubert and Schumann, as well as a substantial proportion of the wider Hyperion French song edition. He is author of The Songmakers’ Almanac: Twenty years of recitals in LondonThe French Song Companion (OUP, 2000), Britten: Voice and Piano (Ashgate, 2003), Gabriel Fauré: the Songs and their Poets (Ashgate, 2009) and Franz Schubert: the Complete Songs (Yale, 2014). Awards include four Gramophone awards (three for albums in the Schubert and Schumann series) and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1998; he is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He was made an OBE in the 1994 Queen’s Birthday Honours list and in 2002 he was created Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. He is a Doctor of Music honoris causa on three continents: at Durham in the UK, Boston’s New England Conservatory in the USA, and Perth in Western Australia.

[Image and bio from Hyperion Records]

Library Resources

Events

All events and activities will take place in Brunton Auditorium in the Marjorie Young Bell Conservatory of Music.
 
Master Class: Voice and Piano Duos
Tuesday, March 8, 2022  4:00 – 6:00 p.m.  
Graham Johnson presents a master class for voice and piano duos from the Department of Music.
 
Coachings: Voice and Piano Duos
Wednesday, March 9, 2022  12:30 – 2:30 pm
 
Colloquium Musicum: My Life in Music 
Wednesday, March 9, 2022  4:00 p.m.
Bragg Artist-in-Residence Graham Johnson discussed his long and varied career as collaborative pianist, recording artist, and scholar. 
 
Master Class: Schubert Lieder
Thursday, March 10, 2022  12:30 – 2:30 pm 
Graham Johnson presents a master class focusing on Schubert’s Lieder for voice and piano duos from the Department of Music.
 
Public Talk: Schubert in Love, in Sickness and in Health
Thursday, March 10, 2022  7:00 p.m.
Pianist and scholar Graham Johnson shares his thoughts on various elusive aspects of the composer's private life that have been much-debated among scholars and music-lovers for many years, and never more so than in the last decades. Dr. Johnson will offer his interpretation of the available evidence and describe how Schubert's friendships impacted the composition of his songs.
 
Public Talk: Collaboration at the Piano
Friday, March 11, 2022  1:30 – 2:30 pm
In this informal talk, Dr. Johnson will discuss the joys and challenges of collaborating at the piano, with a particular focus on the art song repertoire.  
 
Lecture-Recital: Franz Schubert – Night and Day
Friday, March 11, 2022  7:30 p.m.  
Pianist and scholar Graham Johnson presents a lecture-recital, contextualizing some of Schubert’s most beloved songs, joined by Dory Hayley (soprano) and Vicki St. Pierre (contralto).
 
Coachings: Voice and Piano Duos 
Saturday, March 12, 2022  (Time to be confirmed)