Some composers defy succinct definition, and shoehorning Ayanna Witter-Johnson into a tidy profile is no mean feat. Her music blurs boundaries between classical and alternative RnB—two genres that rarely coexist—and you are just as likely to find her singing while playing the cello, as you are to find her pouring over an orchestral score. This remarkable confluence of styles stems from a childhood that was saturated with music of every shape and colour. ‘My Dad and Uncle are DJs and my Mum loves to sing,’ says Ayanna, ‘so I embraced a pretty healthy diet of classical piano and cello studies while absorbing pop culture, soul, jazz, reggae, hip-hop and RnB music throughout my childhood and until now’.

Witter-Johnson was just three years old when her mother spotted an aptitude for music and took her to her first piano lesson, and she took up the cello as her second instrument (now very much her first) when she was thirteen. She went on to graduate with first-class degrees from both Trinity Laban and the Manhattan School of Music, and in 2009 was featured as an Emerging Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre. Since then, she has been commissioned by the Ligeti, Solem and Kronos Quartets, and London Symphony Orchestra; collaborated with Anoushka Shankar, Courtney Pine and Nitin Sawhney; and been nominated for a MOBO award. A recipient of the Nordoff and Robbins’ Classical O2 Silver Clef Award, Ayanna has toured the world performing with Andrea Bocelli and Peter Gabriel amongst others. She cites Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder among her greatest influences as readily as she does J S Bach and Claude Debussy, and while many of her works chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century, she is also no stranger to tackling issues of social oppression and globalisation. Her music is impossible to label (and why should we?) but its guiding principle is one of authenticity and personal truth.

from notes by Jo Kirkbride © 2023