Percussionist Erika Johnson brings her unique voice and versatility everywhere, from cabarets to orchestral pits and stages.
A singer herself, Ms. Johnson specializes in accompanying voices through innumerable musical theater productions and cabaret. Most recently, she has accompanying award-winning cabaret performers Lauren Weedman (HBO's Looking), Alyssa Stone and Sheelagh Murphy. For herself and others, she arranges for the rare combination of voice and percussion. Her arrangement of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time was recently premiered by New York City-based professional chorus, Choral Chameleon. Under the guise of Malletov Cocktail, Ms. Johnson sings and plays along to her unusual covers of pop songs, both classic and tastefully bad.
A frequent performer of new music, Ms. Johnson has enjoyed introducing the West Coast to John Luther Adams' Drums of Winter, sharing the bill with percussionist and composer Glenn Kotche as part of the inaugural season for Stanford Live in the Bing Concert Hall. Her virtuosic playing is highlighted on Tribute to Andrew Imbrie, a recording commemorating the composer's 80th birthday.
Ms. Johnson holds performance degrees from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she studied with Gerald Carlyss (former principal timpani, Philadelphia Orchestra), and from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Jack Van Geem (former principal percussion, San Francisco Symphony). As a concerto competition winner, Ms. Johnson performed Deja vu by Michael Colgrass on timpani with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra. She has also been the principal timpanist for the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.
A singer herself, Ms. Johnson specializes in accompanying voices through innumerable musical theater productions and cabaret. Most recently, she has accompanying award-winning cabaret performers Lauren Weedman (HBO's Looking), Alyssa Stone and Sheelagh Murphy. For herself and others, she arranges for the rare combination of voice and percussion. Her arrangement of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time was recently premiered by New York City-based professional chorus, Choral Chameleon. Under the guise of Malletov Cocktail, Ms. Johnson sings and plays along to her unusual covers of pop songs, both classic and tastefully bad.
A frequent performer of new music, Ms. Johnson has enjoyed introducing the West Coast to John Luther Adams' Drums of Winter, sharing the bill with percussionist and composer Glenn Kotche as part of the inaugural season for Stanford Live in the Bing Concert Hall. Her virtuosic playing is highlighted on Tribute to Andrew Imbrie, a recording commemorating the composer's 80th birthday.
Ms. Johnson holds performance degrees from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she studied with Gerald Carlyss (former principal timpani, Philadelphia Orchestra), and from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Jack Van Geem (former principal percussion, San Francisco Symphony). As a concerto competition winner, Ms. Johnson performed Deja vu by Michael Colgrass on timpani with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra. She has also been the principal timpanist for the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.
