The Sound of Music feature
Story by Ashley Elvington • Laura McBryde Photography
Betsy
Johnson
A S B E TSY JOHNSON FOND LY RECALLS, her childhood home was filled with the
sound of music. “My mother was a piano major in college and taught piano lessons in
our home for over forty years. My father, while a chemical engineer, loved everything
about choral music.”
At age six, Betsy began taking piano lessons. At age twelve, she chose the flute
Ensemble at Coker College in Hartsville.
Some of her favorite composers are Holst, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Ravel,
Copland, Lauridsen, and choral arrangements by Wilberg, and Hayes. Various genres of
music have affected Betsy in different ways over the years. “Music can express the intangible things we feel and experience in ways we can’t articulate ourselves. In high school, Joni
studied flute at the University of South Carolina. “My mother drove me to Columbia
Mitchell composed songs that I believed expressed what I was feeling at the time. But then,
once a week for several years for flute lessons.” She also played in the McClenaghan
playing flute in the college wind ensemble revealed the experience of group playing and
High School Band and in the Florence Symphony Orchestra as a teen.
new sonorities of sound that I hadn’t experienced in earlier musical ensembles. Also in
In 1978, Betsy earned the Bachelor of Music degree from Converse College and
college, playing in the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra added the dimension of stringed
instruments and required more independence from the wind players.”
“In graduate school, I joined a choral group that sang many ‘a cappella’ songs (unac-
The Masterworks Choir of Florence has also been influential in Betsy’s musical career.
companied). After having been primarily an instrumentalist, I discovered the blending
“My father was a charter member of the choir, and my mother accompanied the choir on
of voices with rich texts and emotion-filled music to be thrilling, both corporately and
piano and harpsichord for many years. For me, not only is the Masterworks Choir thrilling
personally.” Betsy continued her music education at Westminster Choir College in New
to hear, but I have often been asked to play the flute in the accompanying small and large
Jersey, the University of South Carolina, and the Eastman School of Music in New York.
She shares, “In addition to my parents, two people had profound influences on
my musical development. Robert Barr, wind ensemble director at Converse College
and Brevard Music Center, and Robert Page, conductor of the semi-professional
Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of which I was a member for two years
as a young adult. These directors were relentless in insisting on blend of sound, technical accuracy, musical expression, and the sense of rubato (give and take in music).
These men got results from firm expectations but also from their encouragement and
praise when deserved.”
Throughout her musical career, Betsy has taught in public and private schools in
Michigan, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Subjects she taught included choral and instrumental music, music theory, music history, and folk guitar. In
addition, she served as Director of Music Ministries at two local Presbyterian churches for a total of twenty-six years. “I tried to teach and to train choir members and
hand-bell ringers to focus their music on the congregation so they could experience
worship in a more meaningful way. I believe that hymn singing, anthems, solos, and
instruments add to the integrity of the music offered to the worship of our Lord.”
Today, Betsy is the Principal Flutist in the Florence Symphony Orchestra (where she
has been for more than 25 years), piano accompanist for the Wilson High School Honors
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most recently the substitute piano accompanist for voice students and the Men’s Vocal
in elementary school. Throughout high school, she continued piano lessons and
went on to earn the Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan in 1980.
Choir (10+ years), piano accompanist for the Florence Men’s Choral Society (9+ years), and
APRIL 2016
orchestras. Almost the best of both worlds: hearing and experiencing the art of choral
singing and the satisfaction of playing my flute in the accompanying orchestra.”
For Betsy, there is historical richness in orchestral and in choral music. “Each style has
its own musical characteristics: Baroque, Renaissance, Romantic, etc. I believe personal
emotions are expressed to a degree in each style just as in life when we experience a
variety of moods.” She’s also discovered that choral music parallels this. “Choral music
represents historical periods with much focused on religious content (Handel’s Messiah
in 1741) and since then, an overwhelming abundance of sacred and secular choral music,
folk songs and spirituals arranged for voices, and, ultimately, musical theatre and opera:
the large and enormously popular musical forces.”
With the different musical groups of which she is a part, there is always new music
to learn. “Some is easy to learn and is easy to discern the composer’s intent, but most
music requires work, both technically and emotionally, to understand and to sense how
my flute and piano parts fit with my fellow musicians. That’s why choirs and orchestras
rehearse so often - not simply to learn the notes but to dig deeper into the beauty of
‘the whole’ and, if there is text, then to develop ways to internalize it to better express it
musically.”
Betsy Johnson resides in Florence, South Carolina. She is the proud mom of Mellette, Sarah,
and Allison, and loving grandmother of Ryah and Skyle
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