Deanna Witkowski

Deanna Witkowski draws on her command of the piano to fuse jazz, Latin folk traditions, and contemporary classical forms into a singular style. After training as a classical flutist and pianist, she encountered jazz during college when fellow musicians drew her into the idiom. Over the following years she performed with various bands and ensembles, launched her debut quintet in 1994, and continued working with the group until a four-month stay in Africa took her to Kenya, where she taught piano. Back in Chicago by 1996, she used grant funds to cut a demo and pursued lessons with several Cuban jazz players. The following year she relocated to New York, assumed the role of music director at All Angels’ Episcopal Church, and began shaping jazz/gospel masses. In 2000 she issued the independent album Having to Ask, started lessons with Brazilian drummer Vanderlei Pereira, and stepped away from the church to concentrate on her own projects. Between these commitments she continued creating and presenting sacred music, wrote a work for jazz choir, revived her quintet, and readied material for her subsequent recording.