Beverley Peck Johnson

Born Beverley Peck in Portland, Oregon, she was the daughter of Hartwig O. Peck and Cecilia W. Peck. She grew up in Walla Walla, Washington, and earned degrees in both speech and drama from the Ellison-White Conservatory of Music in Portland. Shortly thereafter she moved to New York where she began studies in piano with Andre Kostelanetz, and was soon active as an accompanist for singers and ensembles in NYC. Her husband was a faculty member at the Juilliard School and she served as his studio accompanist during lessons and for masterclasses. She often performed in joint recital with her husband as both a pianist and a soprano vocalist. She accompanied other well known singers as well in concerts during her career. Hardesty Johnson died in 1952. Johnson also had a widely known reputation of helping voices experiencing distress. She was hired to assist President Lyndon B. Johnson in his post-operative recovery from the surgical removal of vocal fold nodules while he was in office. ==Death==

Johnson died in Manhattan in 2001 at the age of 96. At the time leading up to her death she was closely administered by her pupils Anthony Dean Griffey and Renée Fleming. Fleming described Griffey as "like a surrogate son to Beverley", and recounted how her final lesson with her teacher was just a month before Johnson's death. Some of her pupils became celebrated voice teachers and accompanists in their own right, including Shane, Robert White (tenor), Margot Garrett, Ken Noda, Cynthia Hoffmann, Martile Rowland, and Brian Zeger. She was adamantly opposed to having her photo taken, and The New York Times was unable to locate or obtain a photo of her at the time of her death. ==References==