On-Line Concerts for the Virus Age

Craig Morris Johnson was born on June 15, 1962 in Crow Wing County, Minnesota to Morris Melvin Johnson (1929-2015) and Marjorie Kathryn (Danielson) Johnson (b. 1931).[2] He and one of his sisters adopted the name Hella, after the village in Norway that their family came from.[3]

Originally from Minnesota,[4] he studied piano and sang in the St. Olaf Choir at St. Olaf College,[5] graduating in 1984.[6] He went on to study at Juilliard, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and Yale University, from which he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree.[7]

He founded and is the artistic director of the group Conspirare.[7] He is also the artistic director of the Victoria Bach Festival and in 1998-1999 was the artistic director of Chanticleer,[8] the second person to hold that position (after founder Louis Botto).[5] In January 2001, Johnson was named director of the Houston Masterworks Chorus, a position he held for two years.[9]