HELIX, TRIUMPH, CONEY HATCH

HELIX, TRIUMPH, CONEY HATCH Vocal Teacher Passes

HELIX mainman Brian Vollmer has issued the following update:

"On Friday morning, shortly before noon, my voice teacher of almost 33 years, Edward Johnson, passed away at Groves Memorial Hospital in Fergus, Ontario. He had suffered a stroke just before Christmas and then another one on New Year’s Eve. This week he developed pneumonia which eventually led to heart failure.

Ed was a major force in my life; like a second father to me. When I first got started in the music business in 1974, I quickly developed nodes on my vocal chords after only a year and a half on the road. A throat specialist advised me to quit singing forever or I would lose the ability to even talk…” My manager at the time, William Seip, sent me to Ed, who, with arm around my shoulder, took me aside and said, “…just listen to what I tell you to do and your nodes will go away…”

I did listen to Ed and followed what he taught me. In one year, without any time off, my nodes disappeared.

Ed taught everyone who sang in the southern Ontario region-Daniel Lanois (producer of U2 and PINK FLOYD), Beverly DiAngelo (Christmas Vacation), Red Green (Steve Smith), Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH), Gil Moore (TRIUMPH), RAY LYELL, LISA DALBELLO, Major Hoople’s Boarding House, Copper Penny, IAN THOMAS, Larry Evoie of EDWARD BEAR, and many more. He had 100 students/week at one time, and a waiting list of another 100 wanting to get in to see him. He taught the old Italian method of singing called Bel Canto which he had been taught at an early age by Mary Moreland (Toronto) and later Guissippe Guiffrieda (N.Y.C). It’s the only technique which allows singers to sing without straining the vocal chords. Back in 1974, if you were playing on the Canadian bar circuit, you had to sing six-seven nights/week, three-five sets/night, so many singers were losing their voices and would end up on Ed’s doorstep.

Ed was the consummate singer from a very early age. His mother doted on him, and it was through his mother his passionate love of the opera and classical music was born. At an early age he travelled to N.Y.C. and was accepted by the New York Metropolitan Opera as it’s youngest member ever. While he was in New York City, Ed was also the tenor soloist at The Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue and 29th St., where the minister was none other than the famous Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power Of Positive Thinking after which almost every self-help book since has been modelled after. It was through Norman Vincent Peale that Ed became a positive thinker, and it was through Ed that I would later become a positive thinker.

During Ed’s first year at the Met he met his wife Patricia, who became the love of his life. After 5 years he left the Met and was starting to tour the U.S. Just when his career was really taking off Pat died of Hodgkinson’s Disease. He lost his will to sing in the opera, returning to Canada.

It was sometime after that we he began teaching. The classical community pooh-poohed the fact that Ed was teaching pop and rock singers, to which Ed replied, '…if anyone needs singing lessons, it’s rock and pop singers!'

I began studying with him around 1976. During the mid eighties it became harder to see Ed due to the heavy touring Helix was doing, but in 1990 I returned on a weekly basis for my lessons, this time to learn classical music. Ed taught me songs like Shubert’s Ave Maria, “O Promise Me” by Mario Lanza, plus many other classical pieces. I looked forward to my lessons with him and it was the ritual for me to pick him up a large regular coffee and a donut from Tim Horton’s for him on my way into town. Our lessons would start with a half hour chat that usually revolved around how bad/good the Leafs were playing, what was up with the both of us, dirty jokes, and politics.

It was around this time that I divorced my first wife and was two steps away from living on the street. I had been working minimum wage jobs but it seemed that the longer and harder I worked the farther I was getting behind in my bills. My situation seemed hopeless, but once again Ed was my saviour. He passed along his knowledge so I could be a voice teacher. Within a couple of years I was making good money and had a list of my own students. He was the mitigating force that helped to pull me out of my poverty, and I never looked back. He would repeat to me over and over: 'Think positive!' until finally it sunk into my thick skull what he was saying. He also used to say, '…yes, 20 or 30 years and you’ll learn how to sing!' He had that right. LOL.

My last lesson was only one week before he had his stroke. I had taken one of my students, Callie Mc Cullough, with me so he could check out her voice.

We had already planned to have him come to Planet Helix to celebrate Christmas with Lynda and I, but unfortunately that would never happen. A couple of weeks before Christmas he suffered a stroke, and another on New Year’s Eve. I talked to him that night, held his hand, and told him I loved him. He said to me 3 times, '…Don’t worry, I’ll pull through!' with that same positive energy he always had, only this time I wasn’t too sure…That would be the last time I would talk to him. The next morning he developed pneumonia and lapsed into a coma.

Many of his former students came to visit him as he lay dying, which I’m sure was a huge comfort to him, as he could still hear. Thanks to all of them for the effort they made to show their respect to him, and to help comfort him when he needed people the most. I’d especially like to thank Dave Rodenburg, Rick Mader, my sister Charin Rivet, Susan McCray, and Ray Lyell for dropping in to the hospital.

Peace be with you Ed. We’ll all miss you so much."