Professor Emeritus Deral Johnson left a legacy of choral excellence
Professor emeritus Deral Johnson created a legacy of excellence at Western. When he began the choral program, he created the foundation for one of the highest-achieving programs in the country, both in performance and education. His death March 24 in Flagstaff, Arizona will be felt by former colleagues, students, friends and family.
"During his many years here, Deral established Western as a leading centre for excellence in choral music," said Dean Robert Wood. "His influence on choral music in this country and internationally is vast and continues through the many students who had the good fortune to be able to work with Deral in one of the many choirs that he directed or in the choral courses that he taught at the Faculty."
The Don Wright Faculty of Music has long been recognized for its outstanding achievements in choral music. Western’s choral program was established in 1969 by professor emeritus Deral Johnson. Under his leadership - and later that of our current conductors - Western’s choirs have been repeat winners in several competitions. Collectively, the choirs have received more than 20 national and international awards.
Alumni who studied with Prof. Johnson have spread his choral expertise across the country and around the world. His approach to the choral experience has changed music education, school choirs, and many lives. A sense of group discipline, rehearsal habits and sightreading a huge amount of repertoire in the first few rehearsals are some of the trademark Johnson concepts. Add moving voices around, fast-paced rehearsals and knowing the score inside out but being flexible to allow for creativity and you start to get a sense of the intensity.
Dr. Victoria Meredith quoted Prof. Johnson in an interview in anacrusis (Vol. 15, No. 2, Winter 1996): “I don’t want all the creativity to come from the director. Some rather original ideas can come from the choir members. They’ve got to learn a lot, and have fun learning it.”
And they did – alumni from the Faculty and those in the Ontario Youth Choirs he directed.
“I want them to go out of my ensembles having learned to enjoy music and be enthusiastic about music.”
His wife Marie, also his accompanist for many years, added this: “He inspires them by requiring a lot of them and he gives them the means to accomplish what he expects of them. They gain a better appreciation of the whole field. The seed has been planted and it’s up to the students to carry it forward.”
To nurture that seed even further and honour his legacy of excellence, the Faculty is launching the Deral Johnson Fund for Choral Music. This will support students and student activities in choral music. It may also fund new facilities.
“Held at Foundation Western, the Deral Johnson Fund for Choral Music is a legacy to his contributions and commitment to choral music, which spanned over 25 years at Western,” said John Nolan, development officer for the Faculty. “The income generated by this legacy fund will support students focusing their studies on choral music - through scholarships and awards, subsidizing workshop and conference fees, and bringing master clinicians to the Faculty of Music - and will potentially support a facility named to honour Deral Johnson.”
For more information on how you can contribute to Deral Johnson's legacy, please contact John Nolan at jnolan@uwo.ca or at 519-661-2777 ext 85695.
Several alumni volunteered accounts of Prof. Johnson’s influence on their careers and their lives:
“Deral Johnson had a huge impact on me and my singing career! I'm so glad that someone is writing about this fabulous man! When I was at Western in his choir for two years, the musical experience I had was only matched by the human experience. He taught me so much about how to be an adult, how to handle rejection and how to be a good part of a team.
There are two memories that come to me often. The first was at the end of second year. As is usually my wont, I was being a tad mouthy about choir auditions and how performance majors shouldn't have to do it and how it tires our precious voices. DJ got wind of it and decided to teach me a very quick lesson about putting your money where your mouth is. He took me off the choir list for the following year and basically demoted me to the lowest choir. I was of course horrified to not see my name on the Singers list and ran to his office to see what was going on. He confronted me, I cried, I begged to be back in the choir (which I really did enjoy) and he put me back in. Phew. Tragedy averted!
The second lesson also involved me mouthing off. (So sorry DJ) I was in third year and he brought out a piece of music called Canticle of Praise by Daniel Pinkham for soprano soloist, choir and percussion. It was pretty atonal and almost impossible for the choir to sightread. I murmured something about "who's gonna sing this crappy solo?" He again called me on it, and challenged me to learn it. Because of the kind of man he is, and how much I admired him, I took that wacky solo and hammered it into my brain and pretty much nailed the audition. It was such a high for me to accomplish this and to have his respect. I actually really think of this experience often!
DJ was a joyful and mega-talented choir director. My only regret is that I haven't seen him or Marie since I graduated to thank him.”
- Jackie Short, singer, vocal lecturer at Don Wright Faculty of Music
He filled the role of mentor for me. He offered me opportunities. When I first came to Western, I was teaching voice. He was the one who asked me to start working with choirs. I would sit in his Wednesday class, then I would teach Thursday and do whatever he did.
When he worked at Western his door was open and he’d be sitting at his desk poring over his score, silently conducting. When he went into rehearsal, the music had already started in his head. The respect for the score was really key to what he was doing.
But he was also expert at bringing out musical intuition and intelligence of the group, not just dictating. He’d have people in the choir go out and listen and ask what they heard. He wanted students to learn to use the collective musical intelligence. He had an idea of what he wanted but was flexible about it, depending on the singers.
In terms of repertoire, he was experimenting with, and being very bold about, contemporary music and doing things others were not doing. He went into uncharted territory. He was good at doing all different styles, and could make Mozart sparkle. His philosophy was, “It’s not what you do but how you do it.”
He was a real believer in discipline, but also in the joy of it.
Continuing to associate his name with choral music at Western is a great idea.
- Dr. Victoria Meredith, Associate Dean, choral conductor
Deral Johnson created a safe haven for us to experiment, trust ourselves, take chances, and ultimately, he charged us with the responsibility of elevating our art to the highest level, in order to elevate the human spirit with our music. He did all that by his own example, and set the master prototype for us to change the world - as he did for thousands of his students. His voice is with me every day, challenging me to be a better person. I will be forever grateful.
- Elaine Overholt, vocal coach, singer
My first encounter with Deral Johnson was when he heard my voice audition for entrance into Western’s Faculty of Music. He was already a legend and during my undergrad years I was privileged to sing in his choirs and study conducting in his choral techniques classes. I was always amazed at how he seemed to have solutions to every possible query that anyone had. Equally astonishing was how he seemed to arrange motley groups of singers, ranging from beginners to experienced soloists, into a blended and balanced ensemble. DJ, as we affectionately called him, could be humorous, mysterious, demanding, but always challenging, spurring us on to greater heights musically. He was an artist in every sense, creating beautiful sounds while energizing the group to give only their very best.
As a grad student, I had the privilege of being appointed his assistant conductor for Faculty of Music Singers. Later, as a conductor of my own choirs, both high school and university, I continued to be amazed at how quickly he could energize a group to find their voices, unlock their passion for the music, and sing with enthusiasm. When he returned last year to conduct at the Faculty’s 40th Anniversary, he totally engaged the choir of 300 voices with his subtle, musical gestures and his profound knowledge of the score. What a debt of gratitude we owe to this man, who shared all he had at our Faculty to raise the choral standard at Western to one of sheer excellence in Canada!
- Gloria Gassi, MMus’81
Deral Johnson came to Western in 1969 (two year before I arrived) to develop the choral program and set up a master’s choral conducting program. Two years later Prof. Johnson took the Faculty of Music Singers to Kansas City for the American Choral Directors National Conference where the Singers were featured along with a choir from Hungary and one led by Robert Shaw. The Singers quickly became a recruitment tool for Western as young singers from across the Canada flocked to Western to be part of new, exciting choral experience. D.J. and the Singers returned to an ACDA national conference in New Orleans in 1987. Through the years they also travelled to Vancouver, Calgary, throughout Ontario, New York City, Ottawa, Northern Ontario and many other places.
D.J. conducted the Ontario Youth four times over the years - no other conductor has been the head conductor more than twice. DJ and the Singers won the Let the People Sing (European Broadcasting Choral Competition) on two occasions in the Contemporary Choral Class.
The sound he evoked from the Singers was very different from the sound that most Canadian choirs were using. This brought DJ into conflict with many of the other top Canadian conductors. One year in the mid-80s, I had the honour of singing in concert with the three conductors of the professional choirs from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. All three conductors told me that the sound of The Singers was not their favourite BUT all three said that "D.J's singers were the best prepared choral musicians graduating from university. I counted the grads that year. Almost half were Western grads!
D.J.'s grads can still be found across North America in the schools, colleges, universities and community choirs. The passion of D.J. is still going strong today.
I close with a final anecdote on D.J. It was 1972 - the most important day in Canadian history! Canada v.s. Russia for world hockey supremacy! Someone "borrowed" a TV for the second floor lounge so we could watch the game. One could not count the number of student crammed into the lounge. At 3:25 p.m. the game was tied - D.J. was encouraging (yelling) at us to get to Singers rehearsal. When Paul Henderson saved our country we still were yelled at for being late for choir. Is choir more important than hockey? You decide!
- Ken Fleet, BMus’75
What Deral Johnson gave to me during my years of study were steadfast qualities that I am carrying with me throughout my career. There are so many abiding memories that continue to inspire and draw me forward:
• The alluring complexity and meaning of the best in choral literature: from Healey Willan’s Apostrophe to the Heavenly Host, Paul Patterson’s Kyrie, and Robert Starer’s A Little Nonsense, to Michio Mamiya’s Composition I.
• The overwhelming, profound experiences of performing choral masterworks with soloists and orchestra in Alumni Hall: the Bruckner Te Deum, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Beethoven Mass in C, and Poulenc Gloria. They were thrilling.
• The choral library at Western. It is a monument to discerning, long-term dedication in building an enviable artistic and educational resource.
• Deral Johnson’s Friday afternoon lecture series was a magnetizing almanac for what we needed to know now, and what we would need to know in the future. We did need to know it!
• His voice balancing system mystified many but helped and educated more; it redeemed many singers and choral conductors to a superior texture and enriching experience for them and their listeners.
• Deral Johnson was a great inspirer. He drew us to our responsibility for ownership, artistry and our own integrity of music making – through free-voiced singing, rhythmic acuity, and musical sensitivity for ourselves, the ensemble, the poet, and composer. He was stern, he was fun, he was exact, he was ecstatic. He gave as much as he could possibly give, so that at times, we were actually better than we could possibly be.
• Deral Johnson’s greatest legacy to us, though, was an insistence on our best possible standard, and the artful balance of building the repertoire while nurturing the voices. He communicated this artist-teacher philosophy with the ardor of a devout scholar and the zeal of an evangelist.
I do not have a single day as a teacher or singer that does not find me buoyed by Deral Johnson’s generous examples of meaning-making, tenacity, rehearsal mastery, building skills for artistry, and his way of laughing us into laughing. He remains for me, and for us, a great and superlative teacher - a teacher of our lifetime. We are so very grateful.
- Darryl Edwards BMus83, MMus‘93
