Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a British singer-songwriter, cellist and composer from the United Kingdom. She works across jazz, classical, experimental and folk music, and is also described as a pioneer of Black folk music.

Background and training

She studies at Trinity College of Music in the UK and Manhattan School of Music in the United States, gaining music degrees from both institutions. She also takes part in London’s Southbank Centre as an emerging Artist in Residence and is a participant in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Discovery Panufnik Young Composers Scheme.

Career

Witter-Johnson performs as a vocalist, cellist and composer, and is also active as an arranger. She is the first non-American to win Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and one of only a small number of winners to do so with an original composition.

Style and influences

Her work combines singing and cello playing, and she is known for a style that joins a vocal approach with expressive, often unusual cello performance. Her influences include Betty Carter, Luciano Berio, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Peter Eotvos, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ella Fitzgerald, Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, Wayne Shorter, Björk, Bobby McFerrin, Carla Bley, Carole King, Nina Simone and Mariza.