Beverley Peck Johnson, 96, Voice Teacher (Published 2001)

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Beverley Peck Johnson, a noted voice teacher and a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music since 1964, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 96.

Ms. Johnson was a highly trusted and notably successful voice teacher, as the long list of eminent singers who studied with her bears out. Among her students from Juilliard were Renee Fleming, Faith Esham, Anthony Dean Griffey and Robert White. The roster of singers who came to her studio for private coaching includes Renata Tebaldi, Anna Moffo, Evelyn Lear, Giorgio Tozzi, Mignon Dunn, Theodor Uppman and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. Though she provided solid grounding in basic vocal technique, Ms. Johnson was particularly valued by students for a keen ability to find individual solutions to their problems.

Many good voice teachers play the piano well enough to accompany their students in lessons, but Ms. Johnson was one of the few who worked periodically as a professional accompanist, playing for, among others, Martha Atwood and Sigurd Nilssen. Several of her students became prominent accompanists and voice coaches, including Margot Garrett, Brian Zeger and Ken Noda.

Ms. Johnson, who kept her age secret from friends and colleagues, was born in Portland, Ore., on June 12, 1904, to Hartwig O. and Cecilia W. Peck. When she was young, her family moved to Walla Walla, Wash., where she was brought up. She studied at the White Conservatory in Portland, where she pursued a double major in drama and speech. As a young woman she moved to New York and polished her skills as an accompanist in lessons with the conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Some years later she studied voice with the tenor Hardesty Johnson, whom she married and with whom she toured as an accompanist. Her husband died in 1952.

Ms. Johnson also served on the faculty of the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary (1960-65), and the Manhattan School of Music (1982-1989), and was an adjunct professor at the Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College.

Given her background in drama, Ms. Johnson was sought out by several prominent actors for voice lessons and coaching, including Madeline Kahn, Kevin Klein, Constance Towers, Tammy Grimes and Blythe Danner. When, during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson was recuperating from surgery to remove some vocal nodules, Ms. Johnson was summoned to his ranch in Texas to serve as a post-operative speech coach.

Ms. Johnson has no immediate survivors. No photograph of her was discovered in her files at Juilliard or her New York apartment, friends said. Besides keeping her age a secret, Ms. Johnson adamantly refused to have her picture taken.