The Trees for the Forest

Ronald Johnson is Director of Bands Emeritus, and Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Northern Iowa. He was a member of the faculty in the School of Music, conducting the Wind Symphony and the Chamber Wind Players, from the fall of 1982 until his retirement in the spring of 2017. His formal education includes degrees from Texas Tech University (1968), California State University, Northridge (1971), and the University of Illinois (1985), and his teachers include David Whitwell, Mircea Cristescu (Romania), and Harry Begian. Prior to his appointment at Northern Iowa, he was Conductor of the Wind Symphony at Modesto Junior College (CA) from 1972 until 1979, where he developed one of the most distinguished two-year programs in the nation.

Dr. Johnson has appeared as a guest artist, both as conductor and teacher, with professional and municipal ensembles in China, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. In the 2004-2005 academic year, he received a Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. For that year, Dr. Johnson served as a member of the Music Faculty at the Pécsi Tudományegyetem (University of Pécs) in Hungary, where he created and conducted the Harmónia, a small wind group specializing in original wind music of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 2002, in a ceremony in Vatican City (Rome), for "significant contributions to humanity," he was invested in L' Ordre des Chevaliers du Sinai (The Religious and Military Order of the Knights of St. Catherine of Sinai).

During his tenure at Northern Iowa, the Wind Symphony took six European Concert Tours ... three in Hungary, and three in Italy. One can find some 33 Wind Symphony videos posted on YouTube. The ensemble produced five audio recordings: Rainbow Gardens (1990) (audio cassette), Memories (1994), Genesis (1995), Requiem (1997), and the best of all possible worlds (2004).

Dr. Johnson has been given the Silver Baton Award by Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternity; the Orpheus Award from Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity, and an honorary diploma from Il Conservatorio Luca Marenzio di Brescia in Italy.