Craig Hella Johnson

Craig Hella Johnson is a conductor and composer known mostly for choral conducting and as the founder of <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a>. He has led several major ensembles and is an award-winner and educator.

Johnson was born on June 15, 1962, in Crow Wing County, Minnesota. He studied piano and voice as a student at St. Olaf College in Minnesota and graduated in 1984. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, and Yale University, where he earned his doctorate. Upon receiving a National Arts Fellowship, Johnson studied choral conducting at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart with <a href="spotify:artist:5TwA5VjT0UxdrtnEWT9saC">Helmuth Rilling</a>.

In 1991, Johnson founded the choral group <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> (originally the New Texas Festival) and has since served as its artistic director. He continued to serve in that position and conduct the choir as of the mid-2020s. <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> later expanded into a full-time professional choir, and Johnson has led it to numerous award wins and nominations. Johnson made his recording debut with that group in 2004 on the album Through the Green Fuse. Johnson and <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> have been nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning in 2015 for The Sacred Spirit of Russia. In 2016, <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> premiered Johnson's oratorio Considering Matthew Shepherd.

Aside from leading <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a>, he has served as the director of choral music at the University of Texas from 1990 to 2001 and as the artistic director of the vocal group <a href="spotify:artist:4p6DfIA6NnKmWeRgDJPLT0">Chanticleer</a> from 1998 to 1999. He was the conductor and artistic director of the Victoria Bach Festival from 1992 to 2015, serving as conductor emeritus since 2015. In 2013, he was named the music director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, and in 2016, he was named the resident artist in choral music at Texas State University. He has guest conducted the Austin Symphony and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras, among other ensembles. Johnson has recorded for several labels, including <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Harmonia+Mundi%22">Harmonia Mundi</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Clarion%22">Clarion</a>. He led <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> on the 2019 <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Delos%22">Delos</a> album Hope of Living: Choral Music of Jake Runestad, which earned a Grammy nomination. Johnson and <a href="spotify:artist:0VvrkPoertmEH3SJDw129Z">Conspirare</a> released the album The Singing Guitar on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Delos%22">Delos</a> in 2020, joining various U.S. guitar quartets, and they returned in 2023 with the album House of Belonging. In 2013, Johnson was named the Texas State Musician, becoming only the second classical musician to hold the title. ~ TiVo Staff, Rovi