|
The American bass, choral conductor and voice teacher, Ben Johns, is a four-time graduate of the University of California (UC), Irvine. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance, a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance, a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and an Master of Fine Arts in Choral Conducting. His honors thesis, “Exploring the Neurobiological Basis for the Effect of Movement on the Voice: Quantifying Dalcroze-Type Methods,” earned the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and publication in the UC Irvine Undergraduate Research Journal. He has studied conducting with Joseph Huszti, Stephen Tucker, and Vance George, and voice with Nina Hinson. Since 2016, he is DMA Choral Conducting student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he currently studies conducting with Dr. William Weinert.
Ben Johns grew up performing in Sacramento with California Musical Theater’s Music Circus, earning his Actors’ Equity card with the organization. He worked for over 13 years with the professional singing ensemble, Chanticleer. For three-and-a-half years he worked as an ensemble member, singing baritone and tenor, and for ten years he directed their education programs. He founded and continues to direct the Chanticleer LAB Choir, a small honors ensemble for young singers described by artssf.com as "astonishing" and "quite remarkable." In 2010, following their first National Youth Choral Festival, Chanticleer won the Education and Outreach Award from Chorus America. As Director of Education, he worked with approximately 500 choral ensembles in master-classes and choral festivals.
Outside of Chanticleer, Ben Johns maintains an active career as a music director, professional singer, and private voice teacher. He served as artistic director for Musae, a San Francisco-based women’s choral ensemble, 2012-2016. In 2014 he conducted the University Chorus at the University of California, Davis during Professor Jeffrey Thomas’ sabbatic leave. He has performed with the American Bach Soloists, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Seraphic Fire, Clerestory, Artists Vocal Ensemble, Les Hommes, Oakland Opera, and San Francisco Renaissance Voices. His students have gone on to undergraduate music programs at Oberlin, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Southern California, Chapman University, McGill University, Boston Conservatory, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is now an adjunct professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, leading the Colleges Community Chorus.
As a professional dancer, Ben Johns has worked with the Anaheim Ballet and California Musical Theater - Music Circus. As a chemist, Ben worked as a biochemical and physics patent proofreader and as a researcher in neurochemistry under Dr. A. Richard Chamberlin. |
