Sigma Alpha Iota

distinguished members MEMBER LAUREATE an initiated member of the Fraternity who has achieved international distinction in the music profession. Dr. Joyce Finch Johnson Dr. Joyce Finch Johnson was initiated as a Member Laureate by the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter in June. Dr. Johnson is a Professor of Music and College Organist at Spelman College. From 1989 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001, she served as Chair of the Department of Music. Having received her earliest musical training from her mother, she later studied piano at Fisk University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and Northwestern University, from which she earned the Master's of Music and her Doctorate in Piano Performance. She was initiated into the Zeta Phi Chapter at Spelman College. She received the Sword of Honor for her service as the chapter advisor. In 1989, through a rigorous certification examination, she became an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO). Dr. Johnson plays both solo piano and solo organ recitals. She conducts workshops, plays with chamber music groups, and accompanies distinguished artists. She has been guest piano soloist with various regional orchestras and has performed piano concerti the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She has concertized in Haiti, the West Indies, and Brazil where she played piano concerts in Sao Paulo as part of the Primeira Semana de Musica das Americas international music festival. She also was Artist-in-Residence at the Pernambuco Conservatory of Music in Recife, Brazil, and performed other concerts in that area of South America. As an organist, she had the distinction of being the chosen organist for the nationally televised Communion Service reuniting the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches at its 195th General Assembly of 12,000 people in Atlanta. In the summer of 1996, she performed in the Festival de Musique Baroque in Souvigny, France, and also in Lyon as a part of a summer institute on French organ music. In 1997, she performed an organ recital in Devonshire, Bermuda, at the Anglican Christ Church. In demand as a recitalist and workshop leader, she often lectures on African American music, arts issues in higher education, or topics related to keyboard performance and performance pedagogy. She is professionally involved with a number of music organizations including the American Guild of Organists, the College Music Society, the Music Teachers National Association, and the National Association of Schools of Music. A recent special project was her three-year service on the United Church of Christ (UCC) Hymnal Committee resulting in the 1995 publication of The New Century Hymnal, which includes eight of her arrangements. She has board appointments and serves on review panels for local, state, and national arts organizations. She holds memberships in Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, the Atlanta Chapter of The Links, Inc., the Utopian Literary Club, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Bronze Woman of the Year in the Arts, the Spelman College Presidential Award for Distinguished Service, The Fannie Lou Hamer Award, and awards from the Metropolitan Atlanta Music Association, the National Association of Negro Musicians, and the National Black Music Caucus. Most recently she was recognized as a Lexus Leader in the Arts. Dr. Emily White Dr. Emily White was initiated as a Member Laureate by the New York Alumnae Chapter in May. Dr. White's international career has taken her to London's Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre, the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, Saint David's Hall in Cardiff, the Palais de l'Athénée in Geneva, and to Belgium, Italy, and Eastern Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Canada. She has appeared as soloist in Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 at the Craiova International Festival in Romania and in Brahms's Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonia Sudetska in Poland, and as guest recitalist at the International Szymanowski Festival in the Polish Tatra Mountains. While living in England as the first American recipient of a London Symphony Orchestra Foundation grant, she performed for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a private audience at Kenwood House, London, under the auspices of the English National Trust. In 2000, she introduced works by American Composers Bureau members William Bolcom and National Arts Associate Yehudi Wyner to a group of diplomats in Prague at the Residence of the American Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Born in Rye, NY, Dr. White spent her student years in Miami. As a youngster, she performed three times as concerto soloist at Interlochen Center for the Arts and was honored with the Miami Herald's Silver Knight Award for Music. She won top prizes at the International Young Concert Artists Competition of Royal Tunbridge Wells, England, the International Mozart Competition in Austria, the Chopin Competition hosted by the New York chapter of the Chopin Foundation of the United States, and the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Auditions. She has taken part in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and in the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition in Santander, Spain, where she was selected as the only American among twelve semifinalists. As a collaborative artist, Dr. White has performed with the Emperor String Quartet in London and the Klangfarben Ensemble in New York, as official pianist for strings at the Gubbio Festival in Italy and for oboists at the Music Mountain Festival in Connecticut, and with singers at the Juilliard Opera Center and Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Festival. Dr. White is a Steinway Artist and a member of the New York Alumnae Chapter of SAI. She performed for the Dinner of Honors at the 2009 SAI National Convention in Chicago. She received her summa cum laude Bachelor's Degree in Music from the University of Maryland (where she was initiated into the Gamma Epsilon Chapter), her Master's LAUREATE continued on page 40 sai-national.org FALL 2011 PAN PIPES 39

• Cover