During her 20+ years as a teacher, music director, and performing artist, Johnna has had the pleasure of music-directing and coaching professional
artists as well as teaching amateur sudents at both the primary and secondary levels of their education. Her musical career, as both a performer and music director, has taken her to both coasts and almost everywhere in between. Johnna is an Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre-Voice for Ball State University, where she teaches music theory, studio voice, and is music director for Ball State’s Cabaret class, which is featured annually at the nationally renowned Columbia Club in downtown Indianapolis. In the spring of 2014, she was invited to sing at Joe’s Pub in New York City with the Senior Cabaret artists, under the guidance of multiple Tony winner and Ball State faculty member, Sutton Foster. This year she taught and acted as music director for the senior cabaret alongside Ms. Foster and Broadway music director Michael Rafter. She was one of the music directors for the premiere season of the Discovery New Musical Theatre Festival, produced by Ball State, in the summer of 2014. This fall, she music directed and assisted with the continuing development of the winning submission from the festival, which was performed in the 2015-16 season for Ball State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. This world premiere production, Mad World: A New Musical, was chosen as a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center-American Collegiate Theatre Festival, and performed at the Pabst Theatre in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home of nationally renowned Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Johnna holds a bachelor’s degree in Voice Performance from Simpson College, Indianola, IA, and a master’s degree, also in Voice Performance, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and National Association of Teachers of Singing.
