Basic Facts
Born: 1972
Type of Performer: Conductor
Genre: Classical
Awards/Notable Achievements:
- First Black woman to receive an international conducting prize
- Honoree, Black Lily Film and Music Festival (2008)
- Leeway Transformation Award (2009)
- Kaki Marshall Arts and Community Award (2010)
- Philadelphia Business Journal Woman of Distinction (2011)
About Jeri Lynne Johnson
Jeri Lynne Johnson is a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago. She began conducting when she was earning her Master's degree in music theory and history. In 1998, she won the Jorge Mester Conducting Scholarship to attend the Aspen Music Festival, and she went on study with famous conductors including Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, and others. In 2005, she became the first Black woman to win an international conducting prize when she received the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship. She has conducted orchestras around the world as well as non-classical collaborations including a performance at Carnegie Hall with Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and The Roots.
In 2008, Johnson founded the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, which she intended as a model for the modern orchestra. Her goal was to make classical music more accessible to a younger, more culturally-diverse demographic. The Orchestra has collaborated with institutions like the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Barnes Foundation to program events that blur the traditions surrounding classical music and performance. Under Johnson's direction, the Orchestra has earned numerous awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and has become the only group to ever win three Knight Foundation Arts Challenge grants.
Listen
Conducting Appalachian Spring, Copland
Conducting the Tin Hat Trio, "Willow Weep For Me"
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