graham johnson
pianist, composer, arranger, teacher and producer

   About Graham...

Graham Johnson's hometown is Chico, California, where he started playing piano at age three, writing piano compositions at eight and performing professionally at fifteen.  His first piano teacher was Irene Cobeen at the Music Express Music School, where he studied the Suzuki piano method.  During his teenage years he studied jazz with local artists Greg D’Augelli and Charles Haynes.

Throughout high school Graham performed with numerous local jazz, blues and rock bands including a piano and bass duo with his father Scott, 18-piece big band The Skyliners, jazz/pop quartet Buddy Kelser and the Gold Tones, and blues band Chico Lenny and His Blues Amigos.  He taught piano at the Music Express Music School and provided piano accompaniment for the school’s children’s performance troupe, The Young American Stars.  In 2003 Graham graduated from Chico High School, where he played percussion and piano in the marching band, concert band, jazz band and jazz choir.

Graham resided with a host family in Melhus, Norway from August 2003 to June 2004 as a student with American Field Service (AFS).  He composed and performed jazz with some of Norway’s best young musicians at Trøndertun Folkehøgskole, where he formed the bands Egg and KaffeKrusaderne, and studied Norwegian, European history and other subjects in the “13^th grade” at a secondary school.

In the summer of 2006 Graham interned at the Southern Arts Federation in Atlanta, Georgia, where he helped manage, design and market two websites: SouthernArtistry.org and ArtsOpportunities.org.  He provided technical support to hundreds of literary, performing and visual artists across the Southeast, and produced a promotional CD compilation featuring twenty SouthernArtistry.org musicians.  In the summer of 2007 Graham was Artistic Coordinator for the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where he organized, programmed, and stage managed concerts and helped coordinate master classes, rehearsals and lessons for over seventy students and thirty faculty and guest artists.

In May 2008 Graham received a BA with Honors in Economics from Oberlin College, where he majored in Economics and Music History/Theory and explored the fields of business and teaching through coursework and involvement with various programs and organizations.  He studied jazz piano with professor Dan Wall and composed, arranged, performed and taught jazz music.  He worked as an Artist Liaison for Oberlin's Artist Recital Series and arranged concert dates, educational events and tours throughout the US for the Oberlin Jazz Septet, a student jazz group that represents the Oberlin Conservatory Jazz Studies Program.  He was Co-Chair of both the Oberlin Student Finance and Investment Club and the Oberlin Student Philanthropy Club, and studied finance and consulting in the Oberlin Business Scholars Program.

Graham recently joined Teach For America, a national teacher corps of recent college graduates and professionals who commit two years to teach in under-resourced public schools.  He will teach 5th grade special education at a public school in Brooklyn, New York.  He looks forward to getting involved with education and the arts in diverse communities throughout Brooklyn and New York City.