Trent Johnson

1963 -

About

Trent Johnson is an organist, composer, pianist and conductor. He is the Organist and Assistant Director of Music of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City and is the Music Director of the Oratorio Singers of Westfield, New Jersey. The Oratorio Singers perform the great choral masterworks with professional soloists and with members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Johnson is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and The Juilliard School, NYC. His organ instructors have included John Weaver, Donald Sutherland, Peggy Haas-Howell, and Glenn Carow. In addition he has studied piano with Walter Hautzig, Glenn Carow and Edgar Cosimi. Major conducting influences have come from his work with Frederik Prausnitz, Dr. David A. Weadon and Norman Scribner of the Choral Arts Society of Washington DC. Mr. Johnson was formerly the Assistant Organist of the Brick Presbyterian Church in NYC.

He is an organist at Radio City Music Hall in NYC, were he plays the "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ for the Christmas Spectacular Show. He was also chosen to play the "think music" for the television show Celebrity Jeopardy! taped at Radio City Music Hall in 2006. In January 2007 the NY Theater Organ Society invited him to give a joint organ recital on "The Mighty Wurlitzer" organ at Radio City Music Hall with organist Bob Maidhof.

An active organ recitalist, Mr. Johnson has performed recitals in many of the major churches, concert halls and cathedrals in the United States, Europe and Asia. His musical journeys have taken him to Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Canada, Japan, Russia and Ukraine. In March/April of 2011 Trent performed numerous organ recitals on a highly successful concert tour of Russia. Some notable recital venues in America have included; the Riverside Church, St. Thomas’ Church 5th Avenue, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Brick Presbyterian Church, and Radio City Music Hall in New York City; Washington National Cathedral, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and the National City Christian Church in Washington DC; the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, and Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Baltimore; Boston’s Trinity Church Copley Square, and Newark’s Sacred Heart Cathedral.

As a composer, Mr. Johnson has written numerous works for various soloists, ensembles and musical organizations. Among them are chamber music, choral works, art songs, works for organ and piano, cantatas, concertos, orchestral works and an opera.

Some recent compositions include his bass trombone concerto entitled Across Continents (2021), written for bass trombonist Darrin Milling, his 10 pieces for organ (2021), written during the Covid pandemic, his opera Kenyatta (2017), commissioned by Trilogy: An Opera Company and his oratorio Wittenberg - The Story of Martin Luther (2018), written for narrator, soloists, chorus and orchestra. This work tells of the German religious reformer and highlights his famous trial in the city of Worms. Other works include The Wisdom of Solomon (2016), for chorus, brass ensemble, organ, timpani and percussion, the oratorio Saint Augustine (2014), for soloists, chorus and orchestra, and the children's anthem We All Love to Sing (2017) written for the 10th anniversary of the Celebration Singers of Ashville, North Carolina. In March of 2012 he conducted a preview of his Cantus Avium Solamen Est, or Birdsong Brings Relief, a concerto for clarinet, bird whistles, chorus and orchestra, featuring NJSO clarinetist Andrew Lamy. In 2011, an American Guild of Organist Commission saw the premiere of his Concertante for organ and string quartet, featuring organist Marilyn Keiser and the Shanghai String Quartet. In 2010 he premiered his Concert Variations on The Carnival of Venice for organ on the von Beckerath organ at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Milburn, NJ, and conducted the premiere of his Celebration Overture for orchestra, for the Oratorio Singers of Westfield's 30th Anniversary concert. 2009 saw the premiere of In Homage of Spring for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra, based on poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Kahlil Gibran, with soprano Rachel Rosales and the Oratorio Singers of Westfield.

Related Information

http://trentxjohnson.com/

Works by Trent Johnson