2016 Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition
Preliminary Round
Van Cliburn Recital Hall

Adrienne Johnson, 62
Elementary music school teacher/playwright
Minneapolis, Minnesota
United States

Around the time Adrienne Johnson’s fourth and youngest son left home five years ago, she realized she wanted to return to the piano. Thirty years ago, armed with a master’s from The Juilliard School where she studied under Adele Marcus, Ms. Johnson went on to forge a career as a playwright and elementary school music teacher while raising her children. Each year at her school, she writes two plays, one in the fall, one during spring; her most recent work focuses on tolerance and freedom, and highlights the music of Beethoven, The Supremes, and Woody Guthrie. As she inspires the next generation of music-makers, Ms. Johnson is humbled to have been nominated for a 2017 Grammy^® Music Educator award. She placed second in solo piano at the Chicago Amateur Competition in 2014, and last year, she participated in PianoTexas International Academy & Festival.

Program:
RAVEL, “Ondine” from Gaspard de la nuit
RACHMANINOV, Prelude in G-sharp Minor, op. 32, no. 12