Lee Johnson is a composer, conductor, producer, and educator who is actively pursuing new ways of creating and presenting symphonic, cross-over, hybrid, and virtual music.
Lee Johnson has conducted and recorded his music with the London Symphony Orchestra, The Russian National Orchestra, the London Session Orchestra, the Center for Contemporary Music Moscow, and with numerous session orchestras and session musicians.
Johnson's symphonic compositions have been performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Georgia Film Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Centre for Contemporary Music Moscow, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Kings Bishop Virtuosi, the California Symphony Orchestra, the LSO New Music Ensemble, the Vega String Quartet, the Mankato Symphony Orchestra, the Alton Symphony Orchestra, the University City Symphony Orchestra, the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, as well as ensembles from Auburn University, the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the University of West Florida, Minnesota State University, Saint Xavier University and many others.
Lee has released albums and symphonic film DVD's with Warner Bros., CCn'C Records, Intersound International, Platinum Records, Deutche Austrophon, Pamplin Music, Compendia Music, Tikal Records, OMI Records, and Jammates Records. Special selections of Johnson's music have also been released on Deutche Grammaphone, Universal Klassics, and the Decca Records labels.
Lee Johnson’s Dead Symphony no. 6 peaked at #20 and spent 3 week’s on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums Charts, his work on This Christmas charted at #25 on Billboard’s Best New Age Albums, and Simplicity vol. 4 was part of the award winning Gold Record series from Pamplin Music.
Johnson's compositions, as well as his symphonic films, have been broadcast internationally. His critically acclaimed Dead Symphony no. 6, based on the music of the Grateful Dead, has received dozens of feature magazine and newspaper stories as well as feature broadcasts on Sirius/XM, WNYC of New York, NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Minnesota Public Radio, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
His symphonic films, Sandfloor Cathedral and Every Matter Under Heaven have been broadcast on Direct TV's Hope Channel as well as broadcasts on Bayrischer Rundfunk Alpha, and Polish Public Television. Johnson's comic chamber opera, Wordsmith was premiered in New York and has received two national tours with the Goliard Ensemble as well as broadcasts on public radio.
Professor Lee Johnson is the director of Composition and Technology at Auburn University.
Photography by Lauren Johnson