Read on to discover more about the multi-talented composer, singer, pianist and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson…
Who is Ayanna Witter-Johnson?
London-born Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a MOBO award-nominated composer, singer, pianist and cellist. She combines classical influences, dance rhythms and eclectic soul in her passionate personal songs about race and history, as heard on her latest EP Colour War.
Witter-Johnson has toured with artists including Anoushka Shankar, Andrea Bocelli and Jools Holland. She also presents a weekly show on Scala Radio/Magic Classical, and has composed for the London Symphony Orchestra, Ligeti Quartet and Kronos Quartet.
Her tracks have featured on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, Jazz FM and Scala Radio. Her TV credits include BBC One, London Live and Channel 4.
Where was Ayanna Witter-Johnson born?
Ayanna Witter-Johnson was born in London and is of Jamaican heritage.
‘There was always music in our house growing up,’ she told BBC Music Magazine. ‘My father is an actor/DJ and my mother is a teacher with a great musical ear, and used to perform with the Ghanaian dance troupe Aguje.
‘I started learning the piano at three-and-a-half, and the teacher I spent most time with was pianist David Smith. He instilled in me a real passion for playing the piano, and the intimacy of the relationship between practising and performing for others.
‘As well as learning piano and listening to pop music, as a child I took dance classes and toured with mum’s Ghanaian troupe. So my music is also infused with those songs and rhythms. “Forever”, the final track on my collaborative album Ocean Floor, with the LSO Percussion Ensemble (Hyperion), is a tribute to my mum, to celebrate those seeds that were sown in the early years in the dance troupe.’
How old is Ayanna Witter-Johnson?
Witter-Johnson was born in 1985.
Where did Ayanna Witter-Johnson study?
Witter-Johnson studied at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in the UK and won the Trinity Laban Silver Award in 2008. She subsequently studied for a master’s degree in composition at the Manhattan School of Music in the USA.
She participated in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Young Composers Scheme and was also an Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre.
What music has influenced Ayanna Witter-Johnson?
‘Ravel’s String Quartet, especially the second movement, holds the essence of so much of the music that I create,’ she told BBC Music Magazine. ‘The pizzicato, the syncopated rhythms, the melodies, how it moves, the energy, the groove that’s in it. My own guitar-and-bass approach to the cello, the plucked introductions to some of my songs, really draws people in and tunes their ears. I think the kind of music I make is listening music, for the heart, the mind and the soul.’
She continued: ‘There’s a piece that I put on before every show. Like a mantra, it puts me in a meditative, calming space. Take 6’s song “Come Unto Me” is incredible harmonically. I just love what this a cappella group from America do with their voices. I have such positive memories of listening to it in the car and singing along with my mum. And I play it in the dressing room, usually when I’m doing my make-up and having something to eat before shows.’
Composer Errollyn Wallen is a big inspiration…
‘Errollyn Wallen was one of my composition teachers at Trinity Laban,’ Ayanna Witter-Johnson tells us. ‘In the opening movement of her Concerto Grosso I love how she’s playing with an old form. She has the piano, the violin and the double bass all in conversation. There’s a richness of texture and harmony, and jazz elements infused into a more Baroque context. With all her music there’s an inventiveness and a playfulness, and she herself has been one of my big inspirations and mentors…
‘And she’s written at least 20 operas! I’m actually doing an operatic writing workshop next week – I like theatre and I like where music meets drama, but I’m not 100 per cent sure I’m an opera composer yet… perhaps because I haven’t defined what opera means to me personally. That could be a whole other chapter!’