Owen Johnson is a composer and pianist from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, currently studying at the New England Conservatory with Kati Agócs. He is enrolled in the Tufts-NEC dual degree program, a rigorous 5-year program between Tufts University and NEC that will result a BM and composition from NEC and a BA in Spanish from Tufts in 2026. In 2022, Owen was awarded a reading and recording of his piece Metis from the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, and was one of four recipients of the American Guild of Organists’ Student Commissioning Project. His orchestra piece, Metis, was recently chosen to be reviewed in a masterclass with composer Mark Anthony Turnage during his residency at NEC. Owen also frequently performs his own piano works, and his pieces are often performed at Tuesday Night New Music Concerts, NEC’s student composer concert series. In the summer of 2022, Owen interned at the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, where he assisted with administrative, planning, and stage tech work.
Other awards Owen has received include the 2019 Penn State Young Composer’s Contest for his piece Humming, and the 2017 Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra/Seton Hill University Composition Contest for his piece SpringFall. Owen has had opportunities to workshop his pieces with the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Worcester Chamber Music Society, and Curtis Summerfest faculty, and received additional orchestral readings from the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra, the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Seton Hill String Ensemble among others. Owen has also attended many summer composition programs and intensives to further his music education, most notably the Curtis Young Artists Program in 2020. Owen was also accepted into the 2020 Eastman Young Artists Summer Program and the 2020 Boston University Tanglewood Institute.