VBF 2025

Michael Johnson, DMA, is an oboist and educator currently based in Los Angeles, with an in-demand performing career spread across the American southwest. Since 2019 Dr. Johnson has been the solo English Horn of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and also holds the position of 2nd Oboe with the Victoria Bach Festival. He frequently performs with orchestras across the region, including numerous weeks as guest principal oboe with the Phoenix Symphony. He has performed with such further ensembles as the Modesto Symphony, The Austin Symphony, The Arizona Opera, Arizona Philharmonic, The Arizona Bach Festival, The Musica Nova Orchestra, and the Music in the Mountains Festival. He has also had the privilege of working with some of the leading conductors of our day such as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Ludovic Morlot, Robert Spano, Carl St. Clair, Stephane Deneve, and Gerard Schwarz. In addition to a busy performance career, Dr. Johnson maintains a private teaching studio, as well teaching and coaching residencies at local public schools.
 
Dr. Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in performance from the Manhattan School of Music, a master’s from McGill University, and recently completed his doctorate in oboe performance at Arizona State University where he also held a teaching assistantship. He is a passionate advocate and performer of early music, particularly music of the French baroque. His doctoral dissertation focused on the application of French Baroque performance practice for players of modern instruments, and featured the publication and recording of music by Pierre Danican Philidor (1681-1731). His primary teachers and mentors have included Martin Schuring, Theodore Baskin, Robert Botti, and Ian Davidson. As a student Dr. Johnson performed at the Apsen Music Festival and School, The Miami Music Festival, Festival Napa Valley, and The Eastern Music Festival, where he studied under the tutelage of Elaine Douvas, Randall Ellis, and Mingjia Liu.
 
Outside of performing and teaching, Dr. Johnson maintains a passion for high-end home audio and vinyl record collecting, which has over time evolved into a career of its own. He is a contributing writer for online magazines Audiophilia.com and TrackingAngle.com, and was formerly a contributing writer for AnalogPlanet.com. As part of his journalism work he has attended numerous trade shows and expositions including covering the AXPONA conference, the largest home audio trade show in North America. He also maintains a small YouTube channel dedicated to record collecting and audio enthusiasm.