January 29, 2001 Contact: Janet Kessin

A memorial tribute for the late Juilliard voice teacher Beverley Peck Johnson will be held Monday, February 5 at 5 PM in the Juilliard Theater. Ms. Johnson, who had been on the faculty of Juilliard since 1964 - only part of a long career as teacher, collaborative pianist, and speech coach - died on January 20 after a brief illness. Two of her myriad former students, soprano Renée Fleming and tenor Anthony Griffey, will perform at the memorial. Ms. Fleming will sing Rachmaninoff's How fair this place, Op. 21, No. 7 and Mr. Griffey performs the spiritual, This little light o' mine. Kenneth Merrill is pianist for both. Pianist Ken Noda, who was a student of Rudolf Firkusny while at Juilliard, but who worked often as a pianist in Ms. Johnson's studio, also will perform Tobias Picker's Old and Lost Rivers for solo piano. Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi welcomes the assembled guests.

Also participating with remembrances and tributes are Juilliard faculty members, former students, and friends Edith Bers, Edward Berkeley, Sister Marlena Brownette, Dr. John Postley, Rita Shane, Ron Young, Mary Lou Falcone, Ann Ziff, and Ms. Fleming.

The memorial tribute to Beverley Peck Johnson is open to the public. There is no reserve seating. Doors open at 4:30 PM. For additional seating information, contact the Juilliard Concert Office Monday through Friday, 11 AM to 6 PM, at (212) 769-7406.

Beverley Peck Johnson, voice teacher at The Juilliard School since 1964, and several other institutions died at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on Saturday, January 20, 2001. Her age was never discussed, but as is now known, Mrs. Johnson was 96. Ms. Johnson had been teacher at Juilliard to celebrated singers such as Brenda Boozer, Faith Esham, Renée Fleming, Anthony Griffey, Robert White, Wonjung Kim, Julia Wolf, and Charles Workman, and a remarkable roster of non-Juilliard singers including Renata Tebaldi, Anna Moffo, Evelyn Lear, Georgio Tozzi, Mignon Dunn, Charles Anthony, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Brock Peters, Theodore Uppman, Peter Atherton, Rita Shane, Joanna Simon, Ara Berberian, and Susan Dunn.

Several of her students have gone on to become important vocal teachers in their time, among them Cynthia Hoffman, Marlena Kleinman Malas, Ellen Faull, Adele Addison, and Lorna Haywood. She also taught singing to several actors and/or popular singers, among them Madeleine Kahn, Kevin Kline, Constance Towers, Tammy Grimes, Claire Alexander, and Harry and Blythe Danner. She had also worked with President Lyndon B. Johnson as a post-operative consultant and speech coach. Her students spoke of her honesty and a precise problem-solving ability, within a very individual approach to teaching the art of singing.

Born in Walla Walla, Washington to Hartwig O. and Cecilia W. Peck, Mrs. Johnson studied at the White Conservatory in Portland, Oregon where she was a double major in drama and speech, studying piano/early music with David Campbell, and drama and speech with Mme. Elizabeth Woodbury. After relocating to New York she studied piano-accompanying with Andre Kostelanetz and Muriel Kerr, and voice with Mme. Edith Gaudenzi. Later she studied with the tenor Hardesty Johnson, who she married, and with whom she toured as an accompanist. Mr. Johnson died April 23, 1952. She also was pianist for singers Martha Atwood and Sigurd Nilssen. Many of today's well-respect pianists and vocal accompanists worked and studied in her vocal studio, among them Margot Garrett, Ken Merrill, Brian Zeger, and Ken Noda

In addition to Juilliard, Mrs. Johnson served on the faculty of the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary (1960-65), and the Manhattan School of Music (1982-99); she was an adjunct professor at the Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College. Mrs. Johnson taught at the Aspen Music School and at the Bowdoin Summer Festival, and held master classes at the Westminster Choir College and Brooklyn College (CUNY). She was a founding member of the Symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice and awarded a special medal by that organization in 1981, and was a member of the Bohemians.