Biography

Puerto Rican composer Johanny Navarro is one of the most exceptional artists of her generation. Navarro has been commissioned by organizations like American Lyric Theater, Multicultural Music Group, Inc., Boston Opera Collaborative, The Catholic University of America Symphony Orchestra, American Harp Society, Inc., The Olga Iglesias Project, The Victory Players, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Philharmonic Orchestra,  California State University Bakersfield Singers, and Emory Symphony Orchestra. 

Her piece Celebration for piano trio (2016) was selected by The Arts Club of Washington D.C. as a commemorative work for the celebration of its centenary. Videntes Stellam for choir and orchestra (2016) was premiered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. and televised on EWTN channel. With this majestic and colorful work, the composer made her debut with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Roselín Pabón at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum of Puerto Rico. Her first chamber opera, Frenesí (2017), was premiered in Washington D.C. The next year, it was presented at the Bertita y Guillermo L. Martínez Theater of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, and in 2019 achieved repositioning of its setting to opera al fresco, at the Ballajá Barracks in Viejo San Juan in a production of The Opera Theater. Consequently, Navarro was chosen as a participant in the Puccini International Opera Composition Course in Lucca, Italia, where she was mentored by composer and director Giralomo Deraco. Her second chamber opera, Redención (2019), premiered at the Puccini Chamber Opera Festival 2021 in Italy.

Johanny Navarro has an ample catalog of diverse work deeply rooted in Afro-Caribbean musical aesthetics, essentially in Puerto Rican musical culture. Her music has been presented in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and France. In 2020, she was featured as a resident artist at the Massachusetts International Festival of Arts (MIFA), and her piece Celebration was part of the Casals Festival program. Her opera ¿Y los Pasteles? Ópera Jíbara en dos actos, work for which she was awarded the Discovery Grant (2020) from Opera Grants for Female Composers by Opera America, premiered in July 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was recently a finalist for Atlanta Opera’s “96-Hour Opera Project” with the premiered of Atlanta: 1906 (2022) with libretto by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. As a resident artist at the American Lyric Theater in New York, she premiered The Magic Cabbage (2022) in collaboration with librettist Joshua Banbury and is developing the one-act comedy Working for the Macbeths with libretto by Marcus Yi. She was appointed as a Schwartz Artist-in-Residence by the Emory University Orchestra, where she composed “Marejada de los muertos” (2023). Recently, Navarro was commissioned by The Olga Iglesias Project to compose a 15-minute opera, “La Batalla de los clásicos,” in collaboration with Paloma Sierra. This initiative brings music to Puerto Rican classrooms.