Biography

Based in North Carolina. Mezzo-soprano, Olivia Johnson was recognized by Opera News as a “standout... commanding and reassuring, with the timbre of a contralto and the astounding upper extension of a dramatic mezzo” for her portrayal of Girlfriend 3 in Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s opera, Blue, in production with Detroit Opera (2021-2022).

In the very beginning of this season, Ms. Johnson had the privilege of making her debut at The Metropolitan Opera as an Alto I soloist in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis. Ms. Johnson is also honored to be a recipient of the Bagby Foundation Career Grant this season. The grant is awarded to support emerging artists that show great promise within the music industry.

This past summer, she was featured as a Gerdine Young Artist in Opera theatre of Saint Louis’ Summer Festival 2023. Nearing the end of the festival, Ms. Johnson had the most exhilarating evening where she stepped in as the cover of Monisha making her debut in Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton’s reimagined opera of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. Wall Street Journal noted that “Olivia Johnson … delivered with aplomb the aria in which Treemonisha’s mother recounts her daughter’s origins”. While at OTSL, she also covered the malicious smalltown bully, Mrs. McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and was featured in OTSL’s Center Stage with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra singing Pauline in the Pique Dame Duet, Charlotte in Sondheim’s “A Weekend in the Country” and Larina in the Act II Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Prior to this summer’s festival, Ms. Johnson had the privilege of participating in OTSL’s New Works Collective workshop in December of 2022 and returned in March of this year to perform leading roles in two of the three original 20-minute operas. This included Sister in Madison Lodge by Tre’von Griffith and Dr. Patricia E. Bath in Cook Shack by Del’Shawn Taylor and Samiya Bashir. Ms. Johnson was recognized for her performance in the New Works Collective by KDHX stating that “…Johnson was a strong, confident presence as Sister.”

Prior to performing in the New Works Collective, Ms. Johnson was awarded an encouragement award earlier this year in the finals of the 2023 George and Nora London Foundation Competition in NYC. In the summer of 2022, she attended Chautauqua Opera where she covered the role of the Mother in Thumbprint (Kamala Sankaram) and performed the role of Gertrude Stein in the Mother of Us All. Before attending Chautauqua, she covered Ella and performed Mezzo I in the ensemble of X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Anthony Davis) for the closing of Detroit Opera Theatre’s 2021-2022 season. Then again in October of 2022, Ms. Johnson covered Ella and performed in the ensemble for Opera Omaha.

During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Johnson had the greatest distinction to appear twice in recital alongside her former teacher, mentor and the legendary tenor, Professor George Shirley in Kerrytown Concert House’s recital series, Passing the Torch I and Passing the Torch II. Ms. Johnson and Professor Shirley participated in an in-depth interview to view the current industry of opera from the eyes of an emerging artist and a longtime veteran. The insightful Q&As were then followed by song cycles, spirituals and duets that inspired both mentor and mentee.

In the summer of 2021, she had attended the Vocal Institute of Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, where she received an Encouragement Award for the Marilyn Horne’s Art Song Competition. She had also made her debut spring of 2021 with the AEPEX Contemporary Ensemble as the soloist for Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater. As a result of that collaboration, Ms. Johnson had gone on to become the new Artist in Residence for AEPEX Contemporary Ensemble for their 2021-2022 season.

In June of 2022, Ms. Johnson performed in ÆPEX’ first annual festival where she curated a recital of art songs and arias by living Black women composers including Jasmine Barnes, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Jacqueline B. Hairston and B.E. Boykin featuring words by legendary black female writers such as Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston. Ms. Johnson presented her own original spoken word as a throughline between song cycles to stitch together the intense yet delicate storyline of a black woman’s experience in love and sorrow all the while being full of resistance and joy. The focus of the recital was to bring attention to the talented yet underrepresented Black women in the industry and to connect them with a newer audience.

In December of 2021, Ms. Johnson was selected as a winner of the Michigan District in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. Within the same month, she also made her debut in the lead role of Conchetta with the virtual opera company, Opera NexGen, in their virtual live stream of Carlos Simon’s and Sandra Seaton’s Chamber Opera, Night Trip.

Olivia Johnson is a former young artist of Toledo Opera in Toledo, Ohio where she performed in their Opera Outdoors and Opera on Wheels for their 2020-2021 season. In October 2020, Ms. Johnson appeared with Detroit Opera Theatre (DOT) as the second Rheinmaiden, Wellgunde, under the direction of Sharon Yuval in his re-imagining of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the modern adaptation. She also appeared with Detroit Opera in the roles of La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost), and Girlfriend (Summer King).

Ms. Johnson has also made other soloist and role appearances with White Snake Projects, Detroit Opera’s Touring Ensemble, Opera MODO, Rackham Choir, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Summer festivals include Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Music Academy of the West, Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance and American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS). Other roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Gertrude (Roméo et Juliette), Mercédès (Carmen), Maurya (Riders to the Sea), Girlfriend 2 (Blue, Cover), Girlfriend 3 (Blue), Sister Mathilde (Dialogue of Carmélites), Conchetta (Night Trip).

A native of North Carolina, Olivia Johnson began studying voice performance in 2010 at East Carolina University earning her Bachelor of the Arts degree graduating in 2014. Ms. Johnson then went on to complete her graduate studies at the University of Michigan earning her Master of Music under the tutelage of Professor George Shirley. She now studies with Jane Randolph.

For the second half of this season, she looks forward to returning to Seattle Opera to make her official debut as the Alto I in their ensemble for X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X. A few weeks after, she will return to the West Coast to make her debut at Berkeley Symphony as the mezzo soprano soloist for Laura Karpman’s Ask Your Mama. This coming summer she will be making another debut, this time at the Vienna Opera Festival as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart.

Photographs featuring Olivia Johnson