Meet Isaac Schanno Johnson | Composer, Conductor, Music Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Isaac Schanno Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Isaac, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
It’s always been about the joy of making music for me. Even from a very early age it was always such a joyous activity to make music with other people. Still to this day there’s such a magical feeling whenever I get to make music with other musicians, especially when they’re as excited about making music as I am and or when they are more skilled musicians than I am. Studying music in college at Berklee College of Music really reinforced that for me because so many of the classes involved working with other musicians and created music with so many other incredibly skilled musicians.

And the same is true for writing my own music. The idea of being able to create your own little worlds is such a powerful idea. And in the case of writing orchestral music, it combines the two (creating your own worlds and working with other musicians to make some music).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a composer and music director based in Los Angeles and I currently direct two youth orchestras, I’m the music director at a church, and do a lot of musical theatre. I’m pretty proud of those jobs because I enjoy all of them and I get to do some pretty cool musical things. In addition to that I’m currently writing an album of fantasy style orchestral music. I’m just about halfway done with it right now. It’s very film-y, so I’m kind of writing the score for a movie without having the actual film. It’s been a lot of fun!

One particular thing I’ve written that I’m super proud of is my album Expanding (An Electric Symphony). Right out of undergrad I wanted to get better at writing electronic music because my degree was in film scoring and classical composition. So to work on that I decided to write an album of electronic music that was structured like a four movement symphony. And the result is that album. I dedicated it to one of my composition teachers, Vuk Kulenovic, because he was such a wonderful teacher to me. He also passed away around the same time I started writing the album and as part of my dedication to him I used a title of one of his pieces; Electric Symphony. I sent it to some of my college teachers once I released it and they all liked that I used that title as an homage to Vuk.

Getting to where I am today hasn’t been incredibly easy, but it’s been a lot of fun … most of the time. I’ve definitely had jobs and gigs that weren’t great at the time, but helped me get to where I’m at right now. It’s mostly been trying to use whatever place I work to either improve some skill to help me get a better job or do something there to directly help me find that better gig. Sometimes that’s just been getting to know my co-workers and being open with them about needing other work. Other times it’s been finding a way to use that job to practice a skill I want to improve.

For example, I used to teach general music at a grade school and I wanted to improve my knowledge of jazz repertoire. So in a few of the classes my lessons would focus on jazz repertoire and we’d sing a different jazz song every week. That forced me to learn a whole bunch of standards. Another example is that I just finished applying to master’s programs in orchestral conducting and I needed rehearsal and performance footage. I wanted recordings that were current so I hired a small string section to play the Christmas Eve service at my church and those performances and rehearsals are what I submitted to the programs.

Some lessons that I’ve learned along the way are that small amounts of progress really add up. There are still a lot of artistic goals I want to meet, like this year the goal is to finish writing and release that orchestral album, to write a musical, and to host a recording session at my church with some other composers I know. And I’m just starting to realize that reaching all of those goals will require slow and consistent progress. If that means one day I only write 20 seconds of music then that’s what I’ve got done that day because that’s still 20 seconds of music written.

What I want people to know about me and my story is that I’m just trying to make cool music with cool people. I like writing and conducting a variety of music so I’m always looking for new music to check out. And if any of this sounds cool, feel free to reach out.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Some of the first places one the list would be the Getty and Santa Monica beach by the pier but also a bit more north is really nice too. It’s a bit quieter and more spacious. There’s a great cafe in West LA called Amandine that I’d take them to. Visiting Griffith Park and the Hollywood walk of fame would be on the list because they’re tourist-y but they’re still cool if you’re not used to seeing them every day. The Grand library in Glendale is also really nice when it’s a nice day outside.

Some of my favorite places to eat are Vitello’s in Studio City, Marmalade Cafe, The Federal in NoHo, Plan Check in West LA, and any taco truck. That’d definitely be on the list of places to eat. All the taco trucks here are amazing.

For drinks the Coco Club in Santa Monica is dope. It’s a rooftop bar. The E.P. & L.P. and Skybar are two other cool rooftop bars.

If the person visiting was into classical music, all of the concerts I’ve been to at Walt Disney Concert Hall have been great. If they’re into music by living composers and they visit at the right time the Hear Now Festival is great.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my family and my high school guitar teacher JP. My family has been super supportive of me and my musical endeavors and JP really encouraged me to meet my musical goals and gave me so many tools to use to get to those goals.

Website: http://www.musaacbyisaac.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musaacbyisaac/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@musaacbyisaac

Image Credits
Jose Fletes, Jared Long, Eva Redamonti.