Roseanna Vitro is a storyteller, a jazz singer with a penchant for touching audiences

Roseanna Vitro is a storyteller, a jazz singer with a penchant for touching audiences.

Having toured the world as an esteemed performer, clinician, recording artist, vocal instructor and ambassador, she has proven herself a reigning member of the jazz community. Her collaborations, covering a wide range of music and stylistic directions, have been cited and celebrated, far and wide.

She is a soulful communicator, showcasing a thirst for swinging hard and possessing an ear for melodic invention. Her strengths include rhythmic acuity and free-spirited spontaneity, often heard in her improvisations, using both scat syllables and lyrics.

Ms. Vitro’s signature energy and grace can be heard on a host of recordings, notable among them, her breakout recording on Telarc (Passion Dance), which featured Elvin Jones, Christian McBride and longtime musical partner, Kenny Werner, and compelling tributes to Ray Charles (Catchin’ Some Rays), Bill Evans (Conviction), and Brazil (Tropical Postcards), The Delirium Blues Project: Serve or Suffer on Half Note Records, 2008- is a live, blues-based recording of jazz and pop repertoire featuring Kenny Werner’s arrangements and an all-star band of Kenny Werner, James Carter, Randy Brecker, Ray Anderson, Adam Rogers, John Patitucci, Rocky Bryant, Geoff Countryman.

Roseanna’s latest recording will be released in January 2011 is : Sail Away, the Randy Newman Project, featuring the brilliant compositions of Randy Newman reimagined through the arrangements of Mark Soskin, featuring Sara Caswell on violin, Dean Johnson, Tim Horner, Steve Cardenas, Jamey Haddad. JazzStories featuring Kenny Werner and Roseanna in a duo setting will follow in 2011.



Her band mates – on stage and in the studio – have included Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, George Coleman, ‘Fathead Newman,’ Eddie Gomez, Arnett Cobb, Elvin Jones, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, Eddie Daniels, Joey Baron, Al Foster, Rufus Reid, Buster Williams, Ben Riley, Allen Farnham, Dean Johnson, Tim Horner, Mark Soskin, Sara Caswell, Randy Brecker, Ray Anderson, Adam Rogers, John Patitucci.

Having served as an official Jazz Ambassador, sponsored in 2009 by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department and in 2004 by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the U.S. State Department, she has presented concerts and workshops around the world.

Her celebrated performance in the Jazzaar 2010 – The Aargau Youth Pops Orchestra playing The Great American Songbook, (arranged by Bob Freedman – and Kevin Field conductor in Aarau, Switzerland will be aired on Swiss PBS Concert Series in 2011. The Maribor Philharmonic in Slovenia was a televised Christmas ‘Special’ in Eastern Europe in 2001 . Her studies of Indian vocal technique are documented in an article, “From Bebop To Bombay,” heralded by the International Association For Jazz Education Magazine.

Given her lifelong commitment to the art of jazz singing – exemplified by her myriad of achievements on the bandstand, in the studio, and in classrooms fronting jazz’s next generation – Roseanna displays a heart and a soul rare by any standards. She is a consummate artist whose professional outreach improves us all.

Recordings

The Randy Newman Project, (2010 TBA), JazzStories (2010 TBA) with Kenny Werner and Roseanna Vitro, The Delirium Blues Project; Serve or Suffer (Half Note Records 2008), Live At The Kennedy Center (Challenge International, 2006) • Tropical Postcards (A Records, 2004) • Conviction: Thoughts of Bill Evans (A Records, 2001) • Catchin’ Some Rays: The Music Of Ray Charles (Telarc, 1997) • Passion Dance (Telarc, 1996) • Softly (Concord, 1994) • Reaching For The Moon (CMG, 1991) • A Quiet Place (Skyline, 1987) • The Time Of My Life: The Songs Of Steve Allen (Seabreeze, 1986) • Listen Here (Skyline, 1985). Among the artists featured on these recordings are: Joey Baron, Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, Arnett Cobb, George Coleman, Eddie Daniels, Al Foster, Eddie Gomez, Eddie Henderson, Fred Hersch, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Kevin Mahogany, Christian McBride, David “Fathead” Newman, Tim Ries, Trio da Paz, Kenny Werner, Kirk Whalum and Buster Williams.

Education
Vocal Jazz Improvisation, Rhiannon 2005-2008
Voice Technique, Barbara Maier 1990 -2010
Piano, Jason Teborek, 2006
Improvisation, Freddie Hendrix, 2005
Classical Indian Vocalese, Bombay, India 1998 -Teachers: Dhanashree Pandit Rae, Purvi Parikh, Uday Bhawalker
Piano, David Leonhart, 1997
Ear training and improvisation, Kenny Werner, 1990, 2007
Portugese lessons, Barbara Lubambo, 1990
Ear training, Fred Hersch, 1987
Voice Technique, Ann Marie Moss, 1982-1987
Classical Voice, Manhattan School of Music, Gabore Carelli, 1980-1982 (private applied lessons)
Jazz Voice, Ray Sullenger, 1972-1974
Piano, Sid Bernstein, 1972
Piano, basic theory, Texarkana Jr. College, 1970
Arkansas High School 1969
Teaching History SUNY Purchase University, Vocal Jazz Teacher 1999-2002
New Jersey City University Vocal Chair, 1998 – current
The Wachovia Teens Jazz Program at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center 2000-curren

Awards
Inducted into Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame 1998, with Bob Dorough and John Stubblefield.
2009 - New Jersey Jazz Society Jazz Leadership Award for excellence in teaching.
IAJE Award; 2008, 1998 Performance and Workshop Awards.