JOHNSON, Kirsten

Kirsten Johnson is a pianist, composer and recording artist of international acclaim. She has recorded 26 discs of solo piano music with Centaur, Nimbus, Delos and Guild. This includes the complete piano music of Benjamin Carr, Arthur Foote, James Hewitt and Amy Beach, and world premiere recordings of Albanian piano music and Dmitri Kabalevsky’s op. 1.

Her release of two discs of piano pieces by Florence Price included 34 world-premiere CD recordings. Johnson’s latest release is Pieces for String Orchestra by Kirsten Johnson on Centaur Records (2025, CRC 4169). The second disc of her own piano pieces, Journeys (2025, CRC 4133) follows the 2024 release of Expressions: Piano Music by Kirsten Johnson (CRC 4095). Performances of Johnson’s works include: the London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra; Festival Osmose, Brussels; Vent Nouveau, NYC; the Boston New Music Initiative; and Fifteen Minutes of Fame, NYC.

In 2025, November Wind was premiered in NYC by pianist Max Lifchitz; The Four Elements, a chamber piece, premiered in Italy by Ear to the Earth Ensemble; I heard a baby, for soprano, premiered in Hong Kong; Prayer, for organ, at the Historical Organ Society National Convention, USA; and Do you bloom?, for baritone, in NYC. Johnson was the 2025 Sara Pennypacker Composer Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kirsten Johnson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Incorporated Society of
Musicians.