Rising Stars: Meet Johnny Reinhard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Johnny Reinhard.

Hi Johnny, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began as a microtonal bassoon soloist. After a MM from Manhattan School of Music, I started the American Festival of Microtonal Music Inc., giving concerts internationally.

I realized the Charles Ives “Universe Symphony” and conducted its premiere in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on June 6, 1996. A commercial recording was introduced by Michael Thorne and the Stereo Society (007).

I have premiered music compositions by many prominent composers, including: Harry Partch, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wendy Carlos, La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and many others.

I became a writer publishing “Bach and Tuning” (Peter Lang Verlag), “The Transcendental Tuning of Charles Ives” (Vision Edition), and numerous articles in Russian Journals (e.g., ICONI) on Stravinsky, Ives, and on Music Intelligence.

As a composer, I have created “Odysseus” as a cello concerto/opera, a string quartet “Cosmic Rays,” and solo works “Dune” and “Zanzibar” for bassoon; “Eye of Newt” for alto recorder; and “Zelig Mood Ring” for bass trombone.

I have improvised with great musicians, produced others, and begun Microtonal University (MU) now in its 3rd year over Zoom.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I started with nothing, living with a single mother on Welfare in Brooklyn, NY, but was awarded scholarships throughout my education. Veterans Administration helped, thanks to my biological father, who I had not met. We would meet when I was 25 years old and had a growing and loving relationship until he passed at age 84.

Losing my younger brother when he was only 30 years old was tough.

Except for dips in money access, I worked as an independent throughout my life. I was a substitute teacher in NYC public schools for over ten years, teaching practically every subject. I was a freelance administrative assistant for Pfizer and for law firms in NYC. This meant I could take tours, and I did not have a permanent boss, so I could become an executive director, press writer, and fundraiser for my own company.

Now retired and living in southern California, I have started doing radio and playing solo performances, all while publishing and instructing through Microtonal University.

www.microtonaluniversity.com, www.afmm.org

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a microtonalist. Whereas the piano has 12 notes, I distinguish 1200. I can hear them, play with them, even sing them, and I teach others to hear accurately.

I made a microtonal bassoon playing normally. Perhaps you could say I taught generations of musicians in NYC to play microtonally and then to bring that knowledge to other parts of the world.

For 30 years I was a radio personality for WKCR-FM radio for Christmas Day broadcasts of Microtonal Bach, something I have continued on YouTube.

We have a YouTube channel: MicrotonalVision.

We produce the Microtonal Festival for instruments annually.

I have helped create an international community of microtonal musicians.

How do you think about luck?
There is no doubt that I am very lucky. I can walk into a library and my hand just shoots out and grabs a book, and that book is the book I would have hoped to find if I even knew such a book had existed.

I am so lucky to have two grandchildren although I never had biological children.

One reason I am lucky is I trust my intuition.

I am good-natured and likely to trust.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.afmm.org www.microtonaluniversity.org
• Facebook: American Festival of Microtonal Music
• Youtube: MicrotonalVision

Image Credits
First one with the bell of the bassoon is by Glen Cornett. My conducting is by Chris Lee, with permission. On the roof is anonymous now. On the stage in Kazan, Tatarstan with pianist Joshua Pierce is by Anton Rovner. Last one: at the Rimsky-Korsakov Home Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia from a recital.