Comprised of select women's voices from the first-year class, the Manitou Singers is one of the most popular music organizations on the St. Olaf College campus. Despite a complete turnover in personnel each year, the 100-voice choir sings at the opening worship service of the college as well as various campus functions throughout the year, such as daily chapel and church services, the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Family Weekend concert, and its own spring concert. With a repertoire that ranges from sacred to secular to popular ballads, the Manitou Singers is a group with broad appeal both on and off campus.

Sigrid Johnson is an artist in residence on the music faculty at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she conducts the Manitou Singers, a 100-voice first-year women's chorus. She is also the associate conductor of VocalEssence, a Minneapolis choral ensemble that presents both rarely heard and newly commissioned works for chorus and orchestra.

Johnson maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician at workshops, choral festivals, and all-state music festivals around the world. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the MENC: National Association for Music Education, the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM), and Chorus America. She conducted the Manitou Singers in three performances at the ACDA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas, in 2001, and they will perform at the ACDA North Central Convention in Minneapolis in
2010.

In 2006, Johnson was awarded the prestigious F. Melius Christiansen Lifetime Achievement Award for her lifelong conducting experience and for providing outstanding contributions and distinguished service to choral music in Minnesota.

Johnson was a featured lecturer at both the Eighth World Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2008 and the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2002. She was also a member of the esteemed jury for the the Béla Bartók International Choral Competition in Debrecen, Hungary in 2006, and she was a featured lecturer and clinician at the 2004 Australian National Choral Association conference.

Johnson has served as conductor of the Dale Warland Symphonic Chorus, associate conductor of the Dale Warland Singers, and conductor of the National Lutheran Choir of Minneapolis. She has prepared symphonic choruses for Neemi Jarvi, Sir Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gerard Schwarz, Edo de Waart, and Leonard Slatkin, among others. In 1999, Johnson was honored with the College of Fine Arts and Humanities Leadership Award from her alma mater, St. Cloud State University.

In 1998, Johnson led the renowned St. Olaf Choir while the ensemble's conductor, Anton Armstrong, was on sabbatical leave. She has also served as associate conductor of the St. Olaf Choir during its tours of Australia and New Zealand, Central Europe, Norway, and the British Isles.