AC’s First Lady of Opera Casts Spotlight on Student Success

Score one for dramatic irony, with a bit of a twist.

Celebrated soprano Mary Jane Johnson has basked in the adulation of discerning operagoers on five continents. She has shared the stage with some of her craft’s preeminent practitioners, even the incomparable Luciano Pavarotti. Yet it is with metronomic regularity that she finds herself mentoring AC students who are not fully attuned to the grand scale of her global celebrity.

Of course this has cost the professor of music and voice-artist in residence not a single wink of sleep.

“So what if they don’t know my life story?” Mary Jane offers with a forthright shrug. “I don’t dwell on all the stuff I’ve done in the past, so why should they?

“A lot of them come into the program with some inkling of my reputation, but some don’t have the faintest idea, which is fine. It’s my job to get our students ready to attend four-year schools of their choice. It’s my credibility as a teacher,” she says, “not my reputation as a singer that’s going to help get them there”

Mary Jane at first blush is a West Texas drawler with effervescence to spare, homegrown traits the Pampa native comes by honestly. But a closer look easily reveals a depth that even her most unaware students swiftly glean: their teacher possesses world-class singing talent, a wealth of unpretentious savior-faire, and an inextinguishable fire to teach students well.

If she comes off as a demanding taskmaster at times, it is never with any lack of affection. 

“She’s hard on them, no doubt,” Dr. Steve Weber, chairman of the Music Department, said. “But Mary Jane Johnson is a phenomenal teacher, one of the finest voice teachers I’ve ever known. She makes a huge difference in the lives of her students.

“She has a bigger-than-life personality,” he said. “She is fun and dramatic and a joy to be around. She pushes her students hard for a reason: she is passionate about seeing them succeed.”

Mary Jane requires that her students dress up for lessons, to look and feel the part of the professionals they hope to become. When financial constraints impede compliance, she is not averse to taking them shopping or even to her own home to dig through closets there for suitable attire.

When a student misses class, Mary Jane is quick to the phone to find out why, and she says faculty in the Music Department have embraced this philosophy since she came on board full time in 2000, predating the No-Excuses practice by a decade at least.

When a student demonstrates exceptional talent, Mary Jane makes other calls, to colleagues at some of the best baccalaureate music programs in the land.

“Because of the experiences I’ve had and who I know, I can sometimes match our students with the best teachers in the country, where they will fit best,” Mary Jane said. “I’ll call universities that require a certain vocal level and tell them I have a student that will interest them. They usually say, ‘if they’re your student, send them.’ They respect my singing, but it’s my teaching they trust.”

Most voice students are not destined to perform on the utopian stages Mary Jane has graced – from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala to the Metropolitan Opera in New York – but each aspiring vocalist she mentors gets equal treatment, her foremost effort, and success comes in many forms.

“The world of singing is so fickle, so unsure, and chances are they are not going to become professional singers,” Mary Jane says. “They must have something to fall back on. They have to make a living.

“My biggest joy is to see how far a student comes, whether it’s in theory, sight reading, singing in languages, whatever. I let them know that my first degree was at Texas Tech in music education, and that all the credits they earn at AC are transferable. I’m extremely proud that AC products are packing the teaching ranks in Amarillo schools.”

Mary Jane still performs some, and she conducts clinics and workshops at major universities and schools of music across the country. Yet it is her own base of operations she likes to tout. “AC,” she says, “is like a small conservatory, with faculty as excellent as you will find anywhere.”

Coincidentally, Mary Jane and Steve Weber had the same voice teacher while pursuing their respective graduate degrees – Dr. Jerry Doan – she at West Texas State; he at Arizona State. Steve, as AC choral director, says being on the “same page” with the voice professor is both rare and beneficial.

“We not only like working together, we have the same philosophy of how the voice works,” Steve said. “We are never in conflict. We support each other, and that enhances our overall program by putting students first. It is my great honor to say we’re colleagues in the truest sense.

“Most of our students don’t realize the extent of Mary Jane’s extraordinary professional career when they begin private lessons with her. She’s a big-time somebody. They have the opportunity to work with someone who has done it all, performed in the great opera houses of the world. You can’t place a value on the sort of experience and success our students are exposed to through Mary Jane – it’s simply immeasurable.”

February 17, 2016