Amy Johnson

I was born in Nebraska and moved to Colorado as a young child. I have a German shepherd guide dog, Vonda, that I received from The Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey in 2000. Vonda works hard and loves her job. I graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in Music and voice as my emphasis. During the first few years of college I focused on classical music, which is what most of the students were doing. But as time went on I discovered that singing arias and art songs was very stressful for me. I enjoyed the music but hated performing it! During this time I started listening to Gaelic song and fell in love with it! At first I had no contacts or any easy way to learn the pronunciation or the language itself - I is visually impaired and had a hard time finding study materials in accessible formats. I found various diction resources on the Internet, bought some Gaelic CDs, and began studying. After several months I finally began to experience a breakthrough in pronunciation and started singing the songs myself. It was Gaelic song that caused me to become interested in learning the language. I developed a great passion for Gaelic language and song, as well as the country of Scotland in general.Just before beginning my last year of college, I "met" the Gaelic singer Fiona Mackenzie through email. Fiona was, and still is now, the Mairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellow for the Highland Council. I needed help finding Gaelic songs since I had no contacts or resources, so Fiona was my first contact and eventually became my mentor and friend.I hope to begin attending Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye, in 2008. My goal is to eventually become fluent in the gaelic language and touch as many people as I can with the beautiful songs which have touched me so deeply. I am thinking about taking advantage of the new music degree program.I still have some of my senior recital CDs left - they even include a booklet with the lyrics and translations! I am not sure how many I have because I have to find them all, but I think I have between 10 and 20. If anyone is interested please contact me - they cost $12 plus shipping.I hope you enjoy all the new demos I have up just now - read my latest blog for more details.