Graeme Steele Johnson
Biography Graeme Steele Johnson
Graeme Steele Johnson
His diverse artistic endeavors span creative work as a clarinetist, arranger and “musical detective” (New York Classical Review), ranging from a TEDx talk comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, to his rediscovery and reconstruction of a 125-year-old work by Charles Martin Loeffler, profiled in a full-page spread by The Washington Post.
Johnson’s recent and upcoming performances include appearances at the Library of Congress, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, Emerald City Music, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, and the Bridgehampton, Rockport, Orcas Island and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals, as well as solo recitals at The Kennedy Center and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess series. He also appears annually as a core artist at the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, Archipelago Collective Chamber Music Festival and Caroga Lake Music Festival. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with the Vienna International Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Caroga Arts Ensemble, Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra and the CME Chamber Orchestra.
Since 2022 he has served as the clarinetist of the award-winning quintet WindSync (MKI Artists), one of only two American wind quintets with a full-time, international touring schedule. Also sought after as a chamber musician outside of that group, Johnson has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Jon Kimura Parker, David Shifrin, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Peter Wiley and Bridget Kibbey, as well as the Miró, Callisto and KASA Quartets, Imani Winds, New York New Music Ensemble and Twelfth Night Ensemble.
In 2020, Johnson discovered the unpublished manuscript to a forgotten, 125-year-old Octet by Charles Martin Loeffler, one of the most performed American composers of his time. Johnson spent a year reconstructing the Octet's score from the 75-page manuscript, creating the first critical edition of the music and revealing a kaleidoscopic piece spanning a half-hour. His world-premiere recording of the work was released on his album Forgotten Sounds on Delos Productions in the spring of 2024, coinciding with the first present-day performances of the piece at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival and The Stissing Center. The project garnered widespread attention, receiving a full-page profile in The Washington Post and other features in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, New York Classical Review, Blogcritics and more.
Driven by his interest in shedding fresh perspective on familiar music, Johnson has authored numerous chamber arrangements of repertoire ranging from Mozart and Debussy to Gershwin and Messiaen, and performed them around the country with such artists as the Miró Quartet, Valerie Coleman and Bridget Kibbey. His arrangements have also been championed by others around the world, with performances by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Australia), Moscow Conservatory and La Jolla Music Society, and multiple commissions from The Happenstancers (Toronto).
Johnson is the winner of the Hellam Young Artists’ Competition and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition; other recent accolades include CUNY’s Elebash Dissertation Award, Saint Botolph Club Foundation's Emerging Artist Award and the inaugural Lee Memorial Scholarship from the Center for Musical Excellence. He holds an exclusive recording contract with Delos, and has previously recorded for Hyperion Records, Azica Records, MSR Classics and Musica Solis Productions.
Johnson's writing about music has been published by the international journal The Clarinet, as well as in program booklets by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Northwest, Yale and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and as liner notes accompanying albums by David Shifrin, Ricardo Morales, Lloyd Van't Hoff and the Center for Musical Excellence.
Johnson completed undergraduate study at The University of Texas at Austin under the tutelage of Nathan Williams. He earned graduate degrees from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with David Shifrin and Ricardo Morales and was twice awarded the school's Alumni Association Prize, followed by doctoral study with Charles Neidich and Kofi Agawu at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
