Pianist Crystal Rivette Johnson grew up in Pasadena, California, and began her piano studies with her mother at age eight. Her formative teachers include Duane Funderburk, Roza Kostrzewska Yoder, Eteri Andjaparidze, and Antoinette Perry. She has performed in master classes with Vera Gornostayeva, Dina Joffe, Bronisława Kawalla, Pavel Nersessian, Kalle Randalu, Yuri Sletsarev and Natalia Troull.
Active in concerto competitions throughout her youth, she performed as competition winner with numerous orchestras, such as the Peninsula International Festival, La Mirada Symphony Orchestra, and Brentwood-Westwood Orchestra. As a solo artist, she was awarded top prizes in the Los Angeles Liszt Competition and the Southwestern Youth Music Festival. She was awarded semi-finalist in the International Russian Music Competition, and was a member of the Steinway Artist Ensemble AmerKlavier under the direction of Eteri Andjaparidze in Chicago, Illinois.
In addition to musical performance, Dr. Rivette Johnson engaged in university life internationally as an accompanist and Resident Life Director in Heidelberg, Germany at the Azusa Pacific University School of Music extension campus.
For fourteen years, Dr. Rivette Johnson was on the keyboard faculty of the School of Music at Azusa Pacific University. In this growing and vibrant musical environment, she offered undergraduate and graduate instruction in piano lessons, masterclasses, courses in keyboard literature, piano pedagogy, class piano, and graduate music history seminars. She was invited to lead the pre-professional Artist Certificate program, preparing post-baccalaureate students to step into successful professional careers as performers, placing hundreds of student into prominent professional settings. During her decade of leadership in that program, it grew in enrollment, scholarship support for students, and the curriculum was refined to meet the changing landscape of artistic professions.
As an active solo and collaborative performer and pedagogue in the greater Los Angeles area, Dr. Rivette Johnson balances service with pioneering new music. She served as pianist in multiple churches and premiered the works of rising composers. She has championed the compositions of her childhood friend and current Composer-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Reena Esmail. Crystal has premiered Esmail’s work Curiosity with the Pasadena Master Chorale and the work Earth Speaks.
Combining her lifelong passion for performance, musical instruction, and her leadership of a pre-professional arts program, Rivette Johnson completed her doctorate in musical arts at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Her doctorate in piano performance was complimented by her studies in musicology, piano pedagogy, and arts leadership. Under the tutelage of musical giants, such as Stewart Gordon, Stephen Pierce, Antoinette Perry, she became a published pedagogue, scholar-performer, and advocate of arts leadership programs and the impact they can have on our society.
Education
- Doctor of Musical Arts, Piano Performance, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
- Master of Music, Piano Performance, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
- Bachelor of Music, Piano Performance, Azusa Pacific University
- Piano Performance Major and Honor Graduate, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Crystal Rivette | Pianist 