Story & Photo by Marianne Salza
In the parlor of her pastel yellow, Prattville home – with its wooden porch swing and encircling, lush garden — Marsha Johnson practices a piece that she performs along with a small chorus during Sunday mass at the First Baptist Church, in Woburn. As her fingers press upon the keys of her concert grand Steinway piano, the dangling prisms of a vintage, crystal lamp sitting atop the piano’s lid sway imperceptibly from the vibrations of the gospel song. That whimsical space — where she and her conductor and composer husband, Herman Weiss, have shared for 27 years — is abundant with shelves of sheet music. The living room is decorated with hand-sewn, tropical bird-patterned curtains that embellish the seven-foot-tall windows, and hang from a rod that Johnson cleverly constructed from PVC pipes and fabric-covered tennis ball finials.
A harp that Johnson painted with leaves and pink and purple flowers sits at the far end of the piano. This is Prattville Voice Studio, where Johnson offers one-on-one voice lessons to teenage and adult students. “I am ready and eager to teach,” says Johnson, a professional, classical singer. “It’s individualized, based on the person’s language, whether they’re doing an audition, a solo, or they’ve had lessons and want polish.” Johnson believes that posture is crucial to projecting one’s voice; and that one’s body will provide a singer with as much breath as a phrase requires. She instructs students to balance their bodies so that they are completely relaxed. Johnson advises them to keep their backs straight, align themselves for ease of motion, raise their chests, and rest their arms beside them as they take a natural breath.
“The person really teaches themselves, and the teacher is there to guide,” explains Johnson. “I have a particular method based on Blair McClosky. It is about postural balance and relaxation, so the body does all the work. If you put tension in your body, you put tension in the [vocal] cords.”
The most gratifying moment for Johnson as a music teacher is seeing her students succeed, and their revelations when they begin to understand her lessons and techniques. “The philosophy is about expression and bringing out the best in people. It’s about being authentic as a singer,” Johnson describes. “It’s about finding the repertoire that suites your voice.” Johnson earned a degree in voice from Whittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio, where she grew up.
She also attended the New England Conservatory, where she earned a master’s degree in voice, in addition to her master’s in expressive music therapy from Lesley University. A pioneer in the field, Johnson has helped people heal through music therapy for 30 years. She worked for the state of Massachusetts, serving individuals with intellectual disabilities, and provided hospice music therapy for residents of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare.
“I was providing music and drawing them together through socialization, and playing drums and piano,” says Johnson, who studied neurological music therapy. “It builds new neural pathways for people with strokes, autism, and Parkinson’s.” Johnson and Weiss, congregational members of Temple Emmanuel, can be heard playing piano and singing with the rabbi during Jewish high holidays. Johnson hopes to perform locally at library concert series, and will be in a recital at the First Baptist Church, Woburn, this fall. Prattville Voice Studio is located at 31 Franklin Street, Chelsea. Contact Marsha Johnson at [email protected], or (617) 301-3999 for more information.