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She found a song amid misfortune

After a long rehab, Carol Johnson began teaching music to kids with special needs. Through life's ups and downs, it sustains her.

By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published July 21, 2006

NORTHDALE - Music, for as long as she can remember, has defined Carol Sperry Johnson's life. Its magic spell has been her siren song and her savior.

"I was inundated with music every day," said Johnson, who grew up in Carrollwood, lived for a time in Europe, and now makes her home in Northdale. "When I was 10, Daddy brought home instruments and said, 'Which one do you want to play?' There was never a question I would play an instrument."

"Daddy" was Gale Sperry, then head of the music department at the University of South Florida. Clarinet was the instrument that won out. But it was Johnson's talent that won her a coveted spot at Juilliard, where she earned her master of music degree in clarinet performance. It was also where she worked with such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, and James Levine.

Growing up in a loving family where her talent was nurtured, however, was no protection against misfortune. In fact, the musical acclaim Johnson would enjoy was destined to be offset by the tragedy she would endure.

It was a youthful Johnson who, after graduation from Juilliard, freelanced around New York, picking up gigs by day and waiting tables by night. But as the city became more expensive and she became more disenchanted, she began to look toward southern California for more artistically fertile ground.

The Vietnam War was winding down about the time Johnson headed to Los Angeles. She found work in some of the movie studios there as well as with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra of Orange County.

"I was working these part-time jobs to survive in the arts," Johnson said. "I asked myself, 'Is this what I want to keep doing or do I want a family?' "

The desire for a family won out, and it was marriage that prompted her move to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she performed throughout Northern Europe.

"She's an enormous talent," said concert pianist Mary Ann Scialdo of Northdale. "The local music scene is truly fortunate that she is again calling Carrollwood home."

Already fluent in German, Johnson became equally articulate in Danish. She joined the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and immersed herself in Danish culture.

"I played concerts in churches built in 1100 A.D. and 1200 A.D.," said Johnson, who lived for five years in Scandinavia with her Danish husband and their daughter, Vanessa.

She might still be there had it not been for a serious bicycle accident that sent her life careening down another path. Her injuries were so serious that rehabilitation took nearly three years. Though she was eventually able to resume her life, the lengthy recuperation proved to be too much for the marriage. Johnson and her husband divorced, and she returned to Tampa with Vanessa, who was then 4.

"Thank God for my mother," said Johnson whose mother, Virginia Sperry, a widow of more than a decade, helped while Johnson returned to school. She earned her teaching certificate and armed with a degree in music therapy, began teaching music to children with special needs. She worked in public and private schools and eventually opened her own school, Carrollwood Music.

Life was once again on an even keel. But something was missing.

Enter Joel Johnson, her high school sweetheart.

"He wanted to marry me right out of Chamberlain," Johnson said. "I told him I had to find my music."

So, while Johnson was pursuing her muse, Joel Johnson was living a life that included the Navy, a tour in Vietnam and marriage.

"I think God meant for us to find each other," said Carol Johnson, motioning to the photo of a young boy among a collection of family portraits. One was of Joel Johnson's son, who had died in an automobile accident along with his wife.

Carol Johnson said she and Joel Johnson had each been living in Tampa unaware of the other for 10 years. They reconnected through a message she posted on Classmates.com asking about Johnson's whereabouts.

"Several months later I got an e-mail from him saying, " 'You looking for me?' " Carol Johnson recalled with a laugh and a blush. The two began e-mailing and before long their long-postponed romance was in full bloom.

"We spent two weeks talking on the phone every day," she said. "Eight weeks later we were on a plane to Honolulu where we were married."

And they became a family of three: Joel, Carol and Vanessa, now a teenager. Life was idyllic. Finally, she had the happy family life she had dreamed of.

Then, one night two years ago, the dream was shattered.

Vanessa Sperry-Rask, then 19, was killed as she tried to cross N Dale Mabry Highway on a dark, foggy morning. Her life ended, and Carol Johnson's life, for a time, came to a standstill.

"I told her, 'Carol, pick up your clarinet and play again,' " said Scialdo, recalling advice she gave to Johnson. "Use your music."

In time she has done just that. Johnson took part in the inaugural concert given in June by the Carrollwood Cultural Center. And she continues to teach piano and clarinet to private students through her school, Carrollwood Music. Her students include typical children as well as those with special needs, with a focus on autism.

"She's awesome and has quite the gift and quite the compassion for these kids," said Sally DePalma, a pharmacist in New Tampa and the mother of one of her students. "She has the softness and the patience to really work with these kids."

DePalma's daughter, Leah, has autism.

"She is such a gifted person, and she has the heart to take the time with these children," DePalma said. "Her reward is when she can see a child speak better or have better eye contact. She uses music to help bring these kids out of their shells."

Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5308.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 12:16:35]