Mezzo-soprano Audrey Johnson received her Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College and her Master of Music Degree from the University of Houston. She is also a graduate of the Improvisation Program at the Second City Training Center in Chicago as well as the Nautilus Program in Minnesota, which trains opera singers in the singer-actor techniques of acclaimed opera director Wesley Balk.

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Inspired by her American ancestry, Audrey combined her vocal and performing experience with her patriotic passions to create Of Thee I Sing: American Heritage Through Song, an innovative performing company featuring educational, interactive historical music programming with the mission of bringing American history to life through music, connecting audiences with American song, and inspiring positive patriotism and engaged citizenship through the music of our nation.

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Historical songs, image projections, multiple onstage costume transformations, engaging spoken narratives, and audience participation make these programs performance experiences unlike any other. These are not typical classical recitals! Audrey curates, writes, arranges and performs these one-of-a-kind, one-woman shows.

 

Since the company’s inception in late 2018, Audrey has brought Of Thee I Sing programs to over 10,000 audience members through ten States.

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Of Thee I Sing program themes include The Women’s Suffrage Movement, Amelia Earhart, Pioneer America, Jewish-American Composers, Colonial/Revolutionary America, and the history of American Christmas music. Programs are created in versions for both adult and family/student audiences.

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Organizations that have hosted Of Thee I Sing programs include Opera Aficionado (San Francisco Opera), the Boys & Girls Club, the Girl Scouts, The Tippecanoe County Historical Association, The National Federation of Music Clubs, The Daughters of the American Revolution, UW-Madison, Simpson College, The League of Women Voters, The American Association of University Women, and many other educational, arts, and civic organizations throughout the country.

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Of Thee I Sing programming has been endorsed by such organizations as Caterpillar Inc., The Arts Federation, Arts MidWest, Humanities Iowa, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Audrey's operatic roles of the standard repertory include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Giovanna in Rigoletto, Mrs. DeRocher in Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Meg in Adamo's Little Women, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Prince Charming in Massenet's Cendrillon, Prinz Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Mercedes in Bizet's Carmen, Vitige in Handel’s Flavio and Zaida in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia.

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Audrey has also sung with orchestras in Darmstadt and Wernigerode, Germany. She was a winner of the Wiesbaden Wagner competition which allowed her to attend the renowned Bayreuth summer festival.

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In addition to roles performed on the traditional operatic stage, Audrey has had especially meaningful and rewarding experiences with outreach platforms:

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Portraying the role of Hansel in a touring production of Hansel and Gretel with Opera for the Young in 2011-2012, Audrey performed in dozens of school performances throughout the midwest. Audrey was the Mezzo-Soprano Resident Artist with Shreveport Opera the following season, where, in addition to main-stage roles, she performed in hundreds of outreach productions of both The Ugly Duckling, an opera for elementary schools, and The Final Word, an anti-bullying opera for middle schools, as well as countless concert and gala performances in libraries, senior centers, and other community venues throughout Louisiana and the greater Ark-La-Tex area. These productions are some of Audrey's most cherished performing experiences, and directly influenced the creation of Of Thee I Sing.

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