As Director of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, Sarah Johnson is responsible for developing and overseeing all educational and community activities for the historic New York concert hall. WMI’s programs annually serve over 350,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in the New York City metropolitan area, across the United States, and around the world. During her time at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Johnson has led WMI’s first major strategic planning initiative, including the development of a digital strategy for the department, as well as a clear vision and priorities for its work. Her team has launched numerous new initiatives including the award-winning Musical Connections program, serving people in acute need in healthcare settings, correctional facilities including juvenile justice centers, homeless shelters, and senior service organizations; and the recently launched National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. She has also overseen the expansion of the Link Up program, which currently partners with over 40 orchestras around the country, with pilots in Spain and Japan, supporting those orchestras at no cost with the resources they need to deliver this high quality education program in their own communities. In the fall of 2012, Musical America named Ms. Johnson one of the 30 Rising Stars in the Performing Arts under the age of 40.
Prior to joining Carnegie Hall in April 2007, Ms. Johnson served as Director of Education and Community Partnerships at The Philadelphia Orchestra. She has served on the faculty of the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Orchestra Leadership Academy and presented at the first International Teaching Artists Conference in Oslo, Norway; the National Performing Arts Convention; as well as on various panels including the Dana Foundation, New York State Alliance for Arts Education panel, and as keynote speaker for the National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference. Ms. Johnson has also worked as a teaching artist with the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center Institute. A graduate of the Juilliard School, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in oboe performance, and she was a founding member of Ariel Winds.
Sarah Johnson was the 2013 recipient of the American Express NGen Leadership Award. Learn more about Sarah.
