About

Elisa Kain Johnson is a composer and singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. She began composing in middle school when she had the opportunity to write a piece for the Northwest Girlchoir. Since then, her music has been performed by a variety of professional and student musicians.

Elisa is a five-time participant in the Seattle Symphony’s Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop, in which she composed pieces for chamber ensembles and orchestra that were performed by members of the Seattle Symphony. In May 2023, her workshop piece Lost Without You was featured on NPR’s From the Top.

In 2021, Elisa was selected as one of six national fellows by the New York City-based Luna Composition Lab founded by Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid. Through this program, she had the opportunity to work under the mentorship of inti figgis-vizueta. She composed her piano trio Divide and Concur, which was performed by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). As an alumna of Luna Composition Lab, she has received commissions from the Thomas More University Chorale and the ensemble loadbang.

Elisa is honored to be the 2022-2023 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Northwest Division winner as well as the recipient of the 2022-2023 American Prize in Composition.

Elisa is a rising junior at Northwestern University majoring in Music Composition and Biological Sciences. During the 2024-2025 school year, she was commissioned to compose a piece for the Libertyville High School string orchestra. Outside of music and school, she enjoys Ultimate Frisbee, dancing to K-Pop, and checking out restaurants in the Chicago area.