Nathaniel Johnson
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Nathaniel Johnson, veteran radio broadcaster and record producer, was born in Concord, Massachusetts where he attended both private and pubic schools. From an early age, he showed a remarkable aptitude for music and sound reproduction.
In 1961, he joined the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency where he majored in communications during training at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. In 1962, he was assigned to the Hakata Base, Japan where he spent twenty-four months as a specialist in foreign communications.
Following an honorable discharge in 1964 Johnson, a student at Emerson College, became a radio announcer and later, Music Director for radio station WBCN-FM in Boston, a primary originator of music programming for The Concert Network.
In 1967, Nat Johnson joined the WGBH Educational Foundation and was assigned the unique, triple-role of announcer, producer and audio engineer. In 1969, Johnson became the first classical announcer on WGBH Radio to host and engineer Morning Pro Musica and continued in this role until 1971 when he passed the position on to Robert J. Lurtsema.
In 1980, prior to his departure from WGBH, Johnson was engaged by Masterpiece Theatre Executive Producer Joan Wilson to produce a new record album, "Favorite Themes from Masterpiece Theatre." Johnson then commissioned two British composers, Kenyon_Emrys-Roberts (Poldark)and Wilfrid Josephs (I, Claudius) to extend their respective themes for inclusion on the forthcoming album. Johnson supervised the recording sessions in the BBC Studios at Maida Vale. During his tenure at WGBH Johnson also collaborated with Alistair Cooke on various Public TV programs and, occasionally, recorded Cooke's "Letter From America" for later broadcast on the BBC.
In the 1970's, Johnson participated in the WGBH Radio Drama Development Project and later studied radio drama production with Desmond Briscoe of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop at WHA in Madison, Wisconsin. As audio designer for WGBH Radio Drama projects, Johnson produced "Herakles" by Archibald MacLeish, an experimental radio drama in quadraphonic sound.
While in England for WGBH, Johnson received an invitation from Ray Dolby to tour Dolby Laboratories at Clapham. Working with Dolby engineers in New York, Nat Johnson pioneered the implementation of Dolby Surround Sound for compact-discs at the RCA Studios where he remastered numerous Dolby Surround albums for both the RCA Red Seal and RCA Victor labels. Among his principal projects in Dolby Surround were the remakes of RCA's "Victory at Sea" (Volumes 1 & 2) and "Themes From The Pink Panther" which Johnson remastered in collaboration with composer Henry Mancini.
In 1991, Nathaniel Johnson was appointed Head of Reissues at RCA Records in New York. He had previously produced two quadraphonic LP best-sellers for RCA Red Seal Records, "Spaced-Out Bach," Volumes I and II. Following "Spaced-Out Bach", Johnson produced a 3-record boxed set of Bach's English Suites for RCA Red Seal, London. At RCA in New York, Johnson supervised the remastering of the entire 64-CD Grammy Award winning Heifetz Collection along with many recordings from the RCA Living Stereo series and the Toscanini Edition.
In 1999, Johnson initiated a revolutionary audiophile series of high-end compact discs, “High Performance,” featuring outstanding analogue LP masters of performances by the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras. In addition, High Performance highlighted a variety of eminent artists including Leontyne Price, Vladimir Horowitz and the Guarneri Quartet.
In 2000, Nathaniel Johnson was nominated for a Grammy as Producer of a 94-CD set, The Rubinstein Collection for RCA Red Seal Records
