Richard Johnson (pianist)

In 2015 Johnson became the Jazz Ambassador of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha Club at the St Regis Hotel. Currently, Johnson serves as a Jazz professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and piano instructor for the Ravina Jazz Program in Chicago. He has had four musical releases, with his current project titled 2 of A Kind, co-lead with Gregory Generet, featuring a talented jazz ensemble with Freddie Hendrix on trumpet, Jon Beshay on tenor saxophone, Barry Stephenson on Bass, and Henry Conerway on drums.

Johnson received an Artist Performance Diploma at Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at New England Conservatory (now Herbie Hancock Institute). From 2000 to 2003, he was a member of Wynton Marsalis’ Septet and the Jazz Lincoln Center Orchestra. He was also part of the Russell Malone Quartet, Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet, and the Bobby Watson Quartet. After time spent with those groups, Johnson started the Reach Afar Program, catered to those aged 7 to 17, educating them on the connection between jazz and hip-hop. In 1999, he was named United States Musical Ambassador and did six state department tours across the world from Latin America to the Middle East, totaling more than 76 countries. Johnson has also performed along the sides of jazz icons like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Arturo Sandoval. In 2005, he became a musical director for the Atlanta Hawks. This position allowed him the chance to put together a Hip-Hop instrumental quartet which performed during the in game play for all 92 season games.

Johnson was introduced to music at an early age, specifically the piano, by his father, a gospel pianist from Baltimore, Maryland. Immediately after being born in Pittsburgh, Richard’s family moved to Canfield, OH where they lived until 1984. After living here they moved to Harrisburgh, PA where he played trumpet in middle school and valve trombone in high school until 10th grade. In 1991, Due to Richard’s fathers job they were transferred again to Boxford, MA where he graduated from Masconomet High School in Topsfield.