Born in Madison, Wisconsin. Upon receiving his undergradute degree from the Wisconsin University, Scott Johnson moved to New York seeking first hand exposure to the minimalist and "downtown" music world then florishing in Manhattan, and soon decided against returning to an academic environment. He makes frequent use of musical materials and sounds generally associated with the America vernacular. Most of Jonhson’s score employ both accoustic and electric/electronic instruments, and similarly draw upon both classical and popular traditions. His early use of tape and electric instruments culminated in "John Somebody" (1982), in which transcriptions of recorded speech became the sourcematerial for an instrumental score; a technique wich has since passed into common use, and wichhe has used most recently in "How It Happens" based on the voice of I.F. Stone, and commission bu the Kronos Quartet.

[The notes on Scott Johnson are taken from the CD title "The Urban Diva" (CRIEmergency Music Composers Recordings) CD 654) The Urban Diva is a composition grouping 5 composers. Every composer was given a poem to accompany his composition wich can listen as a work by itself or alone with the 5 other compositions.]