Celebrated Singer Johnny Mathis to Make Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut

Sandra Miska

Legendary crooner Johnny Mathis is currently celebrating his 59th year in the music industry, and has chosen to commemorate the occasion by making his debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Phil on April 4.

A native of Texas, Mathis moved to San Francisco as a young boy, where he learned about music from his father Clem.  The elder Mathis taught the son his first song, “My Blue Heaven” and purchased him his first piano when he was eight years old.  A successful track and field athlete, Johnny Mathis was offered the chance to compete in the Olympic trials of 1956 in Melbourne, Australia.  However, that same week Columbia Records called.  He, of course, chose to go to New York to record his first album, thus beginning his illustrious career.

Mathis has achieved 50 hits on the Billboard charts, including “Chances Are,” “It’s Not for Me to Say,” and “Misty.”  He has recorded more than 80 albums that have sold millions worldwide.  In 2003, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Along with Barbra Streisand, Mathis carries the distinction of having the longest tenure of any recording artist on the Columbia Records label.

“There are a number of good singers, a few great singers, and then there is Johnny Mathis,” wrote Streisand in a letter on the occasion Mathis’s induction into the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters in 2013.

Mathis, who will turn 80 this year, shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  “I don’t think about retiring,” he has recently said.  “I think about how I can keep singing for the rest of my life.  I just have to pace myself.”

Audience members at Walt Disney Concert Hall can look forward to hearing Mathis sing as many of his hits he can in one evening, as well as some of his personal favorites. Accompanying him will be the vibrant and gifted musicians that make up the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“Johnny Mathis With the Los Angeles Philharmonic” will take place April 4 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Tickets can be purchased here.