Music Alumnus Captures First at Cincinnati Song Initiative's SongSLAM Competition

Hunter T. Johnson (BM Composition ’19) recently received First Place in the Cincinnati Song Initiative’s SongSLAM competition for his piece i shall not care, part of a larger song cycle titled sara. sara explores poetry by St. Louis poet Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) from a psychological perspective, following the struggles with mental illness that plagued her for much of her life.

Johnson, a alumnus of the undergraduate music composition program in the Department of Music, composed the work for Teresa Perrotta, a current Artist Diploma candidate in operatic performance at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Perrotta and Johnson have been collaborators and friends since they attended high school together in Orlando, Florida. 

The Cincinnati Song Initiative’s Winter Song Festival: Cincinnati SongSLAM utilized a digital format in 2021: 12 competing composer/performer teams recorded in-person through social distancing protocols in December 2020, with the pieces premiering a month later. The virtual audience voted via donation to each team, awarding three top prizes. Proceeds from donations were used to compile the cash prizes and to support CSI artists/performances. 

“The Cincinnati SongSLAM was a wonderful opportunity for me to collaborate with Teresa and bring Sara Teasdale’s story to a new audience," said Johnson. "We both feel deeply connected to her; not just as artists, but as people. Most singers and composers know her as a source of pretty public domain poetry. We wanted to offer something more than that, to highlight her personal experiences through her own words.”

Johnson will attend Indiana University in Fall 2021, beginning his Master of Music in Composition.

View the performance of i shall not care and view the other SongSLAM participants at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/songslam-teams.