Molly Johnson, D.M.A.

Molly Johnson, D.M.A., soprano, is an active and versatile performer and stage director. Over the years she has performed roles in operas, musicals, and plays in over 35 states and Canada. One of her specializations is outlandish and/or over-the-top female characters. Most recent on her roster of ‘fave femmes’ are the roles of Florence Foster Jenkins, the ‘world’s worst opera singer’ in Souvenir with Painted Sky Opera and Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn in The Music Man In Concert with Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre (CityRep), for which she received a Broadway World Nomination. She was slated to perform the role of Marietta Shingle in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder until the production was canceled due to Covid-19. Other favorites include Rona Lisa Peretti in the 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Pollard Theatre), Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Longview), and The Old Lady in Candide (Nebraska Theatre Caravan). When not on stage, she is often preparing and presenting classical, operatic, musical theatre and sacred repertoire for recital and concert.

Her stage directing has included opera, comic opera, and musical theatre productions at the regional and university level. Most recently,  Dr. Johnson directed her third production of Amahl and the Night Visitors for Painted Sky Opera. Since 2016 she has directed five of the annual UCO children's opera productions. These operas are performed by UCO students for young audiences and have included Pirates of Penzance,  The Ring of the Fettucines, Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing, Little Red Riding Hood, and Johnny Squeaky, her original adaptation of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.

Dr. Johnson is a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association.​

Johnson's teaching areas include undergraduate and graduate applied voice, diction, pedagogy and musical theatre performance and survey/history. Her former students have sung on Broadway, at New York City Opera and with other regional opera and music theatre companies, won state and regional vocal competitions, accepted excellent teaching positions, and been active musicians in their communities and churches.

Johnson is a long-time member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and regularly participates as adjudicator for chapter and regional conferences and as a sponsor of students from her studio who compete in the student auditions. In prior years, she served as president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter and as treasurer of the North Carolina chapter. She also is a lifetime member of Sigma Alpha Iota and Sword of Honor recipient. For several years, she served as the assistant administrative director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation program Prelude to Performance^® in New York City. Martina Arroyo was selected as a Kennedy Center honoree in 2013.