Eric A. Johnson, D.M.A. is the founding Artistic Director of Cor Cantiamo and Director of Choral Activities at Northern Illinois University (NIU). As a National Endowment for the Arts Artworks grant recipient, he has been recognized for his artistic leadership, whose ensembles represent “choral artistry at its finest.” (Lauridsen). He is a committed champion of contemporary choral music and dedicated to addressing social justice issues through interdisciplinary concert events. Johnson is the 2020 the Harold Decker Award recipient, awarded by the Illinois American Choral Director Association. This honor is given “in recognition of the significant contribution made to the lives of innumerable choral singers, conductors, and audiences who have been privileged to experience the finest in choral music as presented under his direction” (IL-ACDA). Ensembles under his direction have performed at multiple national and division conventions for the National Collegiate Choral Organization, American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educators National Conference. He has served as guest conductor for multiple national choral festivals at Avery Fisher Hall and the David Geffen Hall; Lincoln Center, New York. Internationally, Johnson is the Artistic Director of Festival of Three, an international choral festival that features commissioned works from hosting countries. In 2023, the festival was presented in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, and featured Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg. Johnson has served as a guest conductor of the Clare College Chapel Choir (Cambridge, England) and the Asian Pacific Activities Conference Choral Festival (Guangzhou, China); taught at Makumira University (Arusha, Tanzania); the Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (Natal, Brazil); and directed guest choral residencies at Canterbury, Exeter and Worcester Cathedrals. As the Artistic Director of Cor Cantiamo, Johnson has recorded commercial CDs released on Centaur Records and the Divine Arts record labels. He has collaborated with many leading composers of our time including Dominick DiOrio, Stacey Gibbs, Libby Larsen, Morten Lauridsen, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Timothy C. Takach, Sir John Tavener, Pärt Uusberg, and James Whitbourn. Johnson has published music with Santa Barbara Music Publishing, served as a music editor for Earthsongs Publications and has published articles in the Choral Journal. He is active nationally as a clinician and guest conductor for high school and collegiate honor choirs and regularly conducts choral/orchestral masterworks works with both collegiate and professional ensembles.