Elisabeth Remy Johnson is principal harpist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She grew up on Cape Cod, commuting to Boston for her studies with Ann Hobson Pilot and spending summers in Camden, Maine, at the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony for study with Alice Chalifoux. Other summers were spent at Tanglewood, where she was a fellow in harp at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1994 and 1995. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University in 1995, with a double major in music and French, and was immediately hired by the Atlanta Symphony where she holds the endowed Delta Air Lines Chair, and also held the honorary UPS Community Service Chair for 2006-07. Winner of first-place awards in competitions of the American Harp Society and the American String Teachers Association, Ms. Remy Johnson is also a NFAA/ARTS awardee.
With the Atlanta Symphony, Ms. Remy Johnson has performed concertos by Debussy, Handel, Mozart and Ginastera. She recorded Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" with Robert Shaw and his Chamber Singers for the Telarc recording "A Robert Shaw Christmas: Angels on High". Ms. Remy Johnson's first solo CD, “Whirlwind”, recorded on the ACA Digital Recording label, was released in fall 2000. A flute and harp recording with ASO principal flutist Christina Smith, "Encantamiento", was released in fall 2008. The American Record Guide writes: "This collection is aptly named, for we have enchantment here long before we reach the composition with that title, and the sound of Elisabeth Remy Johnson's harp is captured with exceptional brilliance, her artistry a constant joy."
In addition to frequent solo and chamber music recitals in the
Atlanta area, Ms. Remy Johnson has performed with the Atlanta Chamber
Players, the Carolina Chamber Music Festival, and is a frequent guest
at the Meeting House Chamber Music
Festival on Cape Cod, MA. Ms. Remy Johnson has performed at the
American Harp Society National Convention numerous times, recently
giving the world premiere of Son Risa
by Robert Xavier Rodríguez in San Francisco (2006) and
performing in a reunion quartet of the 1988 "The Tonight Show"
performance at the Alice Chalifoux Tribute Concert in Detroit (2008).
Ms. Remy Johnson teaches harp privately, through the ASO
Talent Development Program, and at several
universities in the Atlanta area. She coaches the harpists of the
Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, and is an artist affiliate at Emory
University, Artist in Residence at Kennesaw State University, and
Adjunct Instructor at Georgia State University. Ms. Remy Johnson is
co-founder and artistic director of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, a
program serving 55 students from 7 schools in the Atlanta Public School
system. For this work she received Atlanta's Channel Eleven Community
Service Award and the TBS Pathfinder’s Award. In fall of 2009, Ms. Remy
Johnson was awarded the Atlanta Business Chronicle's "Up & Comers
Award", also known as "40 under 40", recognizing young community
leaders in Atlanta.
