Dr. Terre Johnson served as clinician for Festival '14. Dr. Johnson holds degrees in choral music from Troy University, Auburn University, and Florida State University. Formally the Minister of Music for Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, he has since moved to Houston Baptist University as Director of Choral Music. He also served as Visiting Professor of Choral Music at Judson College. A Life Member of the American Choral Directors Association, he has served as National Chair for Music in Worship and is currently National Chair for Lifelong Singing, providing resources and advocacy for those who conduct in houses of worship or community chorus settings. A Life Member of the American Choral Directors Association, he has served as National Chair for Music in Worship and is currently National Chair for Lifelong Singing, providing resources and advocacy for those who conduct in houses of worship or community chorus settings.
While a student at Florida State University, Dr. Johnson served as rehearsal assistant and accompanist for visiting conductor Robert Shaw, under whose tutelage he developed his approach to the choral/orchestral repertoire. He developed these skills further when asked to teach both undergraduate and graduate advanced conducting courses after the sudden death of professor Clayton Krehbiel. Students from those classes now conduct in major posts in churches, schools and community choruses.
Prior to coming to Vestavia Hills he was Conductor-in-Residence for MidAmerica Productions in New York, and Music Director of the New Jersey Choral Society. He is the founder and music director of the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, and has conducted concerts, rehearsals and workshops in twenty-three states and several countries. His Carnegie Hall debut in 1996 met with critical success, and in 2004 the New York Times lauded the "robust choral sound" his chorus produced in a concert production of Taneyev's Agamemnon, which featured soprano Angela Brown, and was narrated by Olympia Dukakis.
In the summer of 2009 he served as Assistant Artistic Director for the International Haydn Festival in Vienna, where he conducted the Mozart Requiem, and in the summer of 2006 he conducted in the Sydney Opera House as part of the "Voices in the House Festival." His church choirs have performed in international festivals in Warsaw, Krakow, Coventry, and as part of the 1999 Easter Festival in Rome.
In addition to the ten concerts he has conducted in Carnegie Hall, Dr. Johnson is called upon to prepare choruses for Maestro John Rutter, in advance of his concerts. In May of 2014, Dr. Johnson conducted the premiere of his first major work for chorus and orchestra, Missa Femina, in a concert in Carnegie Hall.
Terre Johnson's choral compositions are published by Morning Star Music Publishers, and his compositions have been recorded and performed by the St. Olaf Choir, the Baylor University Concert Choir, and in concerts of the American Choral Directors Association.