…Elisabeth Remy Johnson has been performing with the Grand Teton Music Festival since 2016, but this will be her first performance outside Walk Festival Hall.
“It takes a little extra planning to move the harp, so I am very excited that this worked out,” Johnson said.
There are not a lot of harp-dedicated compositions, and most listeners do not know much about the instrument.
“Harps are these big graceful-looking instruments, but there are hundreds of moving parts, and it can create all these colors and textures, and in these up-close performances people get to see how that is done.”
Johnson was appointed principal harpist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1995. She holds the endowed Carl and Sally Gable Chair.
She is co-founder of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, a program serving 55 students from seven schools in the Atlanta Public School system. In 2018 she founded The Merian Ensemble, a group of five women from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Through its chamber series, “Listen: Works by Women,” the ensemble is dedicated to performing the existing repertoire of chamber music by women and commissioning a new work each year.
Aside from Bonis’ compositions, Johnson will also perform works by Amanda Aldridge and Doreen Carwithen at Friday’s free concert.
