Today we’d like to introduce you to Johanna Telander.

Hi Johanna , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
As a pale, little waif-like girl, growing up in Southern Sweden and the Netherlands before moving to Finland, I was an at times very out-going, at times extremely shy day dreamer with a poetic heart, keenly yearning for the outdoors whenever possible. However, as a kid living with severe asthma and a broken lung, I couldn’t always run and play outside with my brother or friends; so I also used to spend hours attached to a breathing machine, watching animated Disney films on VHS-tapes, rewinding back my favorite songs over and over again until the tapes turned warbly. This is how I learned to understand and speak english and how I got my introduction to musical theatre. I’ve been brought up in classical music, through my parents. In my family, everyone plays an instrument; I play the harp, picked up piano and had voice lessons as my primary instrument since very young. I also danced ballet. My family and I also traveled quite a bit, and over the years I became quite adaptable to my surroundings, feeling like a fish in water wherever we’d hang our hats. Musically, this influenced me to find pieces of my artistic soul in European folk music. Once we settled to live in Helsinki, I went to a school for music and was introduced to jazz via a few precocious musical friends. As a more talkative-than-usual Finn, I didn’t stay put in Finland, but rather took to adventure abroad, came to cherish new connections; and took whatever chance I had to soak in and learn about new cultures with an unquenched sense of curiosity. My parents encouraged independence, and so in my teens, I traveled to Italy, to France, to the Czech Republic, and many more countries on my own, before taking part in a year-long exchange student program in the US. These travel experiences define me to this day. I still enjoy nothing more than discovering new places, meeting new people, and exploring the beauty of our natural world from different angles. After a brief pop recording artist career in Finland, I ended up moving to OH to study and earn a degree in music (jazz studies) from Capital University Conservatory of Music. I got married, and my husband and I moved to New York, where I went to AMDA to study musical theatre performance. After getting my degree, I auditioned and worked in theatre, commercials and film for a decade. Once I became a mom, those early warbly VHS-tape years of my childhood called me back in a way that I didn’t expect. I discovered more and more that I didn’t quite enjoy conforming to the roles already put on paper as much as I liked creating them from scratch. I wanted to make every job count, and make my kids proud of the art I made. Choosing quality over quantity became my professional mantra. I had my own narrative to tell and thus found, or re-found my true passion in songwriting. I feel most fulfilled when getting to work on my own original material. I’ve now written three stage musicals, scored two short films and am currently gearing up to score one of my first feature film collaborations. In addition to releasing my own singer-songwriter songs, I’ve also recently become a published poet, with my book of poetry, A Deep Blue Green Song found for ordering at most places books are sold. Life dedicated to the muse of creativity, writing about things I love and making art about topics I find most important has taken me back full circle, and has been a real “wish-upon-a-star” dream come true.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My industry is not an easy one to break into, especially for an immigrant like myself. Entering the game with very limited knowledge, I had to learn the ropes and intricate unspoken rules of auditioning and working as a “tri-actress-thlete” mostly through trial and error. Even when I was accepted into AMDA to study musical theatre acting, I felt like I was lightyears behind my peers when it came to the skillset required and the exposure to Broadway which most students had had, simply by having lived in this country. After graduating, I tried to conform to what was expected of me, tried to be what I was told by industry members, to fit in and to succeed in the business. I rocked a can-do attitude, a blank slate, single color wardrobe of knee-length dresses paired with Mary-Jane heels, and I learned to sing soprano, totally forsaking my own jazzy persona in the process. I learned to tap, and to smile an unfaltering, iron-clad yet pleasant smile. I dashed in and out of auditions like a robot, hoping I didn’t take up too much of anyone’s time in my over-the-top efficiency and zeal. I weighed my personal worth on jobs booked, and how “busy” I was. When friends or family asked me how I was doing, I would respond with a laundry list of projects I was involved in and which auditions I had coming up. Just thinking back on this way of life is exhausting to me. In a blink of an eye, a decade, and then another rolled by, and the New York dream turned out to have manufactured me into a bit of a machine, running on air. I had become an imitation of the effortless born-this-way- triple threat, but not an original artist in my own right. With no unique thought left, no evident soul present, booking work became more difficult. My engine burned out, hidden behind the lie of achievement via endless stamina and persistance, looming unattainable. It wasn’t until I stepped away from it all, and became a mother, that my true artistic identity began to shine through the cracks. When I took a breath, concentrated on nurturing my young family, the insatiable need to keep running was replaced by something else, something more important; a need to not disappear, a need to matter, to make a lasting mark as an artist and to leave the world better than I had found it. I wanted to instill that same mission and motivation in my kids. I started asking myself the hard questions; not what the next job was, but what job was worth my precious time, and then the even harder questions: who I was, what I was about as an artist, why I was here, what my values are and what I was truly meant to do with my gifts while here. What is the legacy I want to leave behind? How can I make my kids proud? How can I inspire them to ignite positive change in the world? I’ve been answering those questions ever since, and while the way the answers may become clear may have changed from project to project, the answers themselves have stayed mostly the same. I take care, that they are reflected in the stories I tell, the scores I compose, and the poetry I write. And that, in not so much of a nutshell, is how I got to where I am today. While I still sometimes get swept up in that New York minute, lured in by the magic of the city that never sleeps, I have made it a point to keep true to these artistic intentions, and strive to laser focus on the essentials, so as not to lose myself. At times I have to fight the urge to “just keep busy”; it’s a hard habit to kick. But when life gets noisy, I remind myself it is always an option to go back to the forest and find that pale little waif-like Finnish girl from Southern Sweden again, she knew what life was all about, and what she wants to say about it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The music I compose is a mix of classical, contemporary, jazz and European folk (Celtic, Nordic). My past, current, and future projects, wether it be stage musicals, film scores, or songs from my own catalog, share themes which center around strong fundamental ideas, such as: empathy, innovation, inclusivity as well as a profound and stead-fast respect for our natural world. I’m inspired to find an empathetic, emotional center in our fast-changing, human-made chaos. My philosophy is to awaken an innate kindness, and through the language of art, music and theatre, to explore the very core of humanity. Especially now, when the world is at times too noisy, our compass may have a hard time finding its true north. That’s what -to me personally- I believe art should be about- showing us the way back to that core. Art can be entertainment, but entertainment is not always art. I strive to always find a little bit of both in what I do.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Share all that you know freely and willingly, and pay what you’ve learned forward. The world is too small and our time here is too precious to hold back the knowledge we’ve acquired. We can support each other by welcoming partnership where respect is given not only to the art, but also to the heart. Listen to and buy music from artists themselves, follow us on social media, and tell your friends about us. If we told a story that resonates with you, or if our music moved you, let us know directly. That is how art keeps getting made.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.johannatelander.com
• Instagram: @telanderjohanna
• Facebook: @johannatelander
• Linkedin: @johannatelander

Image Credits
“Harp on Beach, Sandcastles Music Video Shoot” By: Tyler Milliron, Milliron Studios Unedited Headshot “I want Music” By: Rachel Monteleone