Biography

Prior to the summer festival, Ms. Johnson had the privilege of participating in OTSL’s New Works Collective workshop in December of 2022 and returned in March of 2023 to perform leading roles in two of the three original 20-minute operas. This included Sister in Madison Lodge by Tre’von Griffith and Dr. Patricia E. Bath in Cook Shack by Del’Shawn Taylor and Samiya Bashir. Ms. Johnson was recognized for her performance in the New Works Collective by KDHX stating that “…Johnson was a strong, confident presence as Sister.”

Just before before the final presentation with New Works Collective, Ms. Johnson was awarded an encouragement award in the finals of the 2023 George and Nora London Foundation Competition in NYC. In the summer of 2022, she attended Chautauqua Opera where she covered the role of the Mother in Thumbprint (Kamala Sankaram) and performed the role of Gertrude Stein in the Mother of Us All. Before attending Chautauqua, she covered Ella and performed Mezzo I in the ensemble of X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Anthony Davis) for the closing of Detroit Opera Theatre’s 2021-2022 season.

During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Johnson had the great distinction to appear twice in recital alongside her former teacher and mentor Professor George Shirley in Kerrytown Concert House’s recital series, Passing the Torch I & II. Ms. Johnson and Professor Shirley participated in an in-depth interview to comment on the current industry of opera from the eyes of an emerging artist and a longtime veteran. The insightful Q&As were then followed by song cycles, spirituals and duets that inspired both mentor and mentee.

She had also made her debut in spring of 2021 with the ÆPEX Contemporary Ensemble as the mezzo soprano soloist for Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater. As a result of this collaboration, Ms. Johnson was chosen as the new Artist in Residence for ÆPEX Contemporary Ensemble’s 2021-2022 season.

In June of 2022, Ms. Johnson performed in ÆPEX’ first annual festival where she curated a recital of art songs and arias by living Black women composers including Jasmine Barnes, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Jacqueline B. Hairston and B.E. Boykin featuring words by legendary black female writers such as Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston. Ms. Johnson presented her own original spoken word as a through-line between song cycles to stitch together the intense yet delicate storyline of her experiences as black woman. The focus of the recital was to bring attention to the talented yet underrepresented Black women in the industry and to connect them with a newer audience.

Ms. Johnson has made additional soloist appearances with White Snake Projects, Detroit Opera’s Touring Ensemble, Opera MODO, Rackham Choir, Opera NexGen, Opera Omaha, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Year-long young artist program includes Toledo Opera. Summer festivals include Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Music Academy of the West, Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance and American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS). Other roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Gertrude (Roméo et Juliette), Mercédès (Carmen), Maurya (Riders to the Sea), Girlfriend 2 (Blue, Cover), Sister Mathilde (Dialogue of Carmélites), Conchetta (Night Trip), La Ciesca (Giannia Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost). She also received awards from Laffont Competition’s Michigan District, MI Opera International Vocal Competition, Marilyn Horne’s Art Song Competition, and NANBPWC, Inc.

A native of North Carolina, Olivia Johnson began studying voice performance in 2010 at East Carolina University earning her Bachelor of the Arts degree in 2014. Ms. Johnson then went on to complete her graduate studies at the University of Michigan earning her Master of Music under the tutelage of Professor George Shirley. She now studies with Jane Randolph.

Photographs featuring Olivia Johnson

Mezzo-soprano, Olivia Johnson has been heralded by Opera News as a “standout... commanding and reassuring, with the timbre of a contralto and the astounding upper extension of a dramatic mezzo” for her portrayal of Girlfriend 3 in Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s opera, Blue (Detroit Opera, 2021).

This season Olivia Johnson has joined Staatsoper Stuttgart’s International Opera Studio. There she will make her German debut in the role of Inez in Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Following Il Trovatore, Johnson is scheduled to appear in the role of Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Emalia in Verdi’s Otello, and 2nd Fairy/Mystery/Attendant/Summer/2nd Woman in Purcell’s Fairy Queen.

Before moving to Germany, Johnson competed in the 40th Annual Cooper-Bing Competition Finals where she placed 4th. During the 2023-2024 season, Ms. Johnson had the privilege of making her debut at The Metropolitan Opera as an Alto I soloist in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis. Afterwards, she returned to Seattle Opera to reprise the same role in their production of Malcolm X. Then a few weeks later Ms. Johnson returned to the West Coast to make her debut with Berkeley Symphony as the mezzo soprano soloist for Laura Karpaman’s Ask Your Mama. Ms. Johnson is also honored to be a recipient of the Bagby Foundation Career Grant this season. The grant is awarded to support the studies of emerging artists that show great promise within the music field.

The summer of 2023, she was featured as a Gerdine Young Artist in Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ Summer Festival. Nearing the end of the festival, Ms. Johnson had the most exhilarating evening where she stepped in as the cover for Monisha making her debut in Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton’s reimagined opera of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. Wall Street Journal noted that “Olivia Johnson … delivered with aplomb the aria in which Treemonisha’s mother recounts her daughter’s origins”. While at OTSL, she also covered the malicious smalltown bully, Mrs. McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and was featured in OTSL’s Center Stage with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra singing Pauline in the Pique Dame Duet, Charlotte in Sondheim’s “A Weekend in the Country” and Larina in the Act II Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.