Christopher Johnson

Photography by Erin Baiano

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Christopher Johnson serves as Director of Music and Organist at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Scranton, PA, and as Director of Chapel Music at The Interchurch Center, in New York City on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In addition to previous appointments as Director of Music and Organist at The Riverside Church in New York City, Artist-in-Residence at Union Theological Seminary, and Director of Music and Organist for the Woodstock/St. Paul Community at Columbia University, he also served as Assistant Organist at Christ Church United Methodist in Manhattan.

An orchestral musician by training, Chris held a tenured position as section violist with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as section violist, as well as solo violist, flutist and bassoonist with the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Fort Smith (AR) Symphony. While pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, his teachers included Adeline Huss, Todd Wilson, and Thomas Murray, for organ studies, and Joshua Smith, John Mack, and Robert Vernon for orchestral studies. As flutist and organist, he performs regularly with Ensemble Eccolo, a chamber ensemble based in Altenburg, Germany, presenting concerts throughout Europe and the Middle East. An enthusiastic and avid flyer of airplanes and lover of languages, Chris is a type-rated commercial pilot with five flight and ground instructor ratings and dabbles in German, Norwegian, and Egyptian Arabic.