Roy K. Johnston: A Life in Sound, Color, and Word

This book is about the life of a creative artist and his journey through the worlds of music, art, and poetry. It is also a drama of great achievement, tragedy, and the struggle to be true to himself- to find his creative voice once again, and to explore the interrelatedness of his chosen disciplines toward a unity of knowledge.

At age four, Roy Johnston hears a clarinet and falls in love with its sound. This love propels him to seek out and study with the finest teachers, to become one of the best clarinetists in the country, and to travel the world in renowned musical ensembles as a classical and jazz performer.

Roy eventually becomes a university professor in the South, a conservatory dean in Boston, and director of a performing arts center in the Midwest. At age 48, his professional ambitions and accomplishments are eclipsed by a divorce, the loss of his family, and the contemplation of ending it all.

Returning to Los Angeles and the family of his childhood, Roy struggles through analysis, a new relationship, a series of fundraising positions in the arts, politics and medicine, but feels largely unfulfilled. What eventually resonates with him is musical improvisations on paintings, collecting art, and ultimately writing poetry. Rather than recreating the music of others, this time he creates and performs his own work.

Roy approaches poetry with the same passion, determination, and scholarship that propelled him to the heights of clarinet performance. This creative force drives him to write seven books of poetry in ten years and to perform his work around the world.

Behind this journey is a personality, at times larger than life and other times one of introversion and acute sensitivity. Roy is highly intelligent, passionate, quirky, and true to “who he is” – an artist who interprets life through his own lense, who demonstrates unwavering integrity, and who has earned the love and loyalty of his family, friends, students, and audiences.