I’ve been singing my entire life,” says Elizabeth Johnston of West Windsor, who plays the role of the mother in Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors, on Wednesday, February 11. The free presentation — at Kelsey Theater at 6:30 p.m. — is a production of the Mercer County Performing Arts High School, where Johnston is in her second year (she is also a senior at High School North).
“Amahl,” a joint project between the performing arts high school and Kelsey Theater, is the first full-length opera to come out the school. Written as a one act, it is a Christmas story about a mother, her crippled son, and visitors with gifts. The second part of the program presents choreographed scenes from “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma,” “A Chorus Line,” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Winner of last year’s New Jersey National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition, Johnston has been studying voice at Westminster Conservatory with Timothy Urban. She will perform at the All Eastern NATS in February. She received honorable mention in Westminster’s Scholarship Competition last spring and received third place in the Teen Competition. Last summer she attended Governor’s School as a vocal scholar.
She grew up with a piano in the house. When she was three, her mother started taking piano lessons. “I would sit on the piano bench and hit the keys,” says Johnston. “That was when my lessons began.” When she was in fourth grade, she began working with the Young Artist Program at Westminste. She now studies piano with Rita Reston; her senior recital is planned for May 16, at 8 p.m. in Westminster’s Bristol Chapel.
Her voice career began in the choir in second grade but the experience that clinched her interest in singing was participating in a concert at Carnegie Hall when she was in the fifth grade at the Upper Elementary School (now the Millstone School). The following year she was in the children’s choir of the Opera Festival of New Jersey’s “Tosca.” “It was really amazing,” she says. “It made me motivated to pursue music as a career.”
When she was in seventh grade, she joined the Princeton Girlchoir and began taking voice lessons. A member of the choirs in middle school and high school, she is also part of “Out of the Blue,” the a cappella group at North.
Also at High School North, she is active with the drama department, having appeared in “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Bang Bang You’re Dead.”
Johnston, actively pursuing an education in voice with a minor in piano, is busy auditioning for conservatories including Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Peabody Conservatory.
In her spare time, she enjoys horseback riding and works at Duncraven Farm in Hopewell Township. She also gives piano lessons, mostly to children, but is willing to teach adults. For more information on piano lessons call 609-275-1120.
Her mother, Rosanne, is a sales manager for a chemical company in Oaklyn. Her father, Gary, is a financial advisor for American Express. Her older sister, Lindsey, a junior at Washington University, is presently in Japan studying fine arts.
High School North students also appearing in “Amahl” include Ellie Braverman, Nikeita Oliver, Eden Casilino, and Ashley Moore. Braverman performs in a choreographed scene from “A Chorus Line;” Oliver is part of “Skid Row” in a scene from “Little Shop of Horrors,” and Casilino plays the role of Maria in a scene from “West Side Story.”
Jessica Moss, coordinator of the dance department at the high school of performing arts, is choreographing and directing the program. The chamber orchestra is conducted by Israel Herman, a faculty member of the music department.
Amahl and the Night Visitors, Kelsey Theater, Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, Wednesday, February 11, 6:30 p.m. Free.
