Jeryl Johnston

Profile

Discipline: Jazz

Originally from Oregon, Jeryl Johnston completed a Master of Music degree in composition at Brooklyn College and a Bachelor of Music degree with dual majors in piano performance and music theory at the University of Oregon School of Music.

In Oregon, she began studying Afro-Cuban music, an undertaking that has taken her on an adventure that has included multiyear freelance tenures in Los Angeles and New York City. In Los Angeles, she performed predominantly with Orquesta Son Mayor, Johnny Polanco y su Conjunto Amistad, and others. As a member of these ensembles, she played regularly at venues such as The Conga Room, The Mayan, The Getty Center, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

After several years in Los Angeles, Johnston packed up and moved to New York City, where she has worked with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Charanga Típica ’73, Louis Bauzo, Ray Santos, The Rhythm Method string quartet and C4, the Choral Composer Conductor Collective, among others.

She has had the good fortune to study with composers, performers, and scholars Kofi Agawu, Ray Andersen, Sonny Bravo, Jack Boss, George Brunner, Gustavo Casenave, Jason Eckardt, Hulengansodji (JB) Gnonlonfoun, Perry Goldstein, Robert Hurwitz, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Steve Larsen, Tania León, Arturo O’Farrill, Ursula Oppens, Harold Owen, Margaret Schedel, Daria Semegen, Victor Steinhardt, and Dalit Warshaw. Dialogue with these advisers has resulted in the development of a portfolio of original chamber and orchestral compositions, works for large and small jazz and Latin jazz ensembles, and for New York City– based West African and Cuban drumming ensembles. It has also resulted in research interests in women in Afro-Cuban music, and in West African timeline music, including a forthcoming publication in the journal Analytical Approaches to World Music about variation techniques in West African lead drumming, available in July 2024.

In addition, Johnston is a committed teacher, having recently held a position as head music teacher with the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. She has taught privately in the areas of piano, music theory, and composition. At the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, she teaches jazz orchestration and arranging, and other courses in which she encourages students to engage with the topics of bias in music, and rhythm.

Johnston is the musical director of the Afro-Cuban third-stream jazz ensemble Yanine. The inaugural release by this ensemble, What She Said, is available on all streaming platforms. An unrelated release of chamber music compositions entitled The Dance That Escaped is forthcoming in early 2024. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in composition as a Graduate Council Fellow at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.