Roseanna Vitro - Biography

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).

Her latest work, issued March 2008 on Half Note, (The Delirium Blues Project: Serve or Suffer), is a blues-based recording of jazz and pop repertoire featuring Kenny Werner's fresh arrangements and an all-star band of Kenny Werner, James Carter, Randy Brecker, Ray Anderson, Adam Rogers, John Patitucci, Rocky Bryant, Geoff Countryman.

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 and many more.

Having served as an official Jazz Ambassador, sponsored in 2004 by the U.S. State Department, she has presented concerts and workshops around the world. Her celebrated performance with the Maribor Philharmonic in Slovenia was a televised Christmas 'Special' in Eastern Europe. Her studies of Indian vocal technique are documented in an article, “From Bebop To Bombay,” heralded by the International Association For Jazz Education.

Currently, Ms. Vitro is Vocal Chair for the Vocal Jazz Program at New Jersey City University (1998 to present), and the Wachovia Gifted Teens Program at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark New Jersey since 2001.

In 1998, Roseanna Vitro was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, along with comrads, Bob Dorough and John Stubblefield.

She studied with Gabore Carelli (1979- 1982), and Anne Marie Moss (1982-1987), both of the Manhattan School of Music, while maintaining current study with noted vocal coach, Barbara Maier. Piano studies with David Leonhardt and Sid Bernstein. Improvisation with Donna Jewel.

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.

Roseanna Vitro - Resume

Concerts, Festivals, Tours (USA / Int'l)

IAJE-Delirium Blues Show-2008, Toronto * Los Gatos, Ca. 2007 * UK 2006 * Brazil 2006 * Queenstown, New Zealand Jazz Festival 2005 * Ankara Jazz Festival, Turkey 2005 * 2004 UK Tour * US. State Department Jazz Ambassadors Tour 2004: Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, Cypress * Jazz Yatra Festival Bombay, India * Maribor Philharmonic, Maribor, Ljubljana, Slovenia * Davidoff International Jazz Festival, Cape town, SA * Angra Jazz Festival, Portugal, featuring Gary Bartz * Women in Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC * Women In Jazz, NJCU * Beirut, Lebanon * International Jazz Educators Convention * JazzTimes Convention * Town Hall, New York * The Hollywood Friars Club, LA with Steve Allen * Lionel Hampton Tour * Harriet Gimmel Theater, West Palm Beach, FL * WBGO Childrens Concerts * The Telluride Jazz Festival * The Clearwater Jazz Festival * The Houston Jazz Festival * Galveston Jazz Festival * Roswell Cultural Center, Atlanta, GA. with Freddy Cole * The Virginia Arts Festival, Jae Sinnate Trio * Kings College, NY * Croton on the Hudson Festival * The East Coast Jazz Festival * The Santa Barbara Jazz Festival * The Dallas Museum of Art * Charles Earland's Jazz Cruise * The Newark, N.J. Jazz Festival * The USAF Big Band, Washington, DC.

Clubs and Performance Venues (USA / Int'l)

The Blue Note, NYC * Rio Grande & Porto Alegre, Brazil 2006 * Wakefield, UK * The Boxford Fleece UK * Jazz Alley, Seattle * NJPAC with Joe Lovano The Blue Note NYC * Finale, St. Louis * The Kennedy Center Jazz Club * The Jazz Standard * Sweet Rhythm * Birdland * Catalina Bar & Grill * The Jazz Bakery * Blues Alley * Triple Door * The Green Mill - Chicago * The Dakota * The Caravan of Dreams * Cezanne * Nardis-Istanbul * Hot Club-Lisbon * Club Red-Cypress

Television and Radio

WBAI interview 2008 * Listen Here Radio interview Podcast, Toronto * WBGO Interview - 2007 * Rio Grande, Brazil 2006 * Scranton Public Television Concert 2006 * TV Noon Istanbul 2005 * Sozopol Jazz Concert * The Ramsey Lewis Show, BET * Artist Profile, CNN * Vocal Jazz documentary, Jim Lehrer, PBS * Marian McPartland Piano Jazz, NPR * The Telluride Jazz Festival, NPR * Frank Foster's 70th Birthday Concert, NPR * Performance Space, WBEZ Chicago * Live at WBGO- Newark * Maribor Philharmonic Christmas Television Concert, Slovenian State Television , NBC -Fantasy with Steve Allen.

Recordings

The Delirium Blues Project; Serve or Suffer (Half Note Records 2008), Live At The Kennedy Center (Challenge International, 2006) o Tropical Postcards (A Records, 2004) o Conviction: Thoughts of Bill Evans (A Records, 2001) o Catchin' Some Rays: The Music Of Ray Charles (Telarc, 1997) o Passion Dance (Telarc, 1996) o Softly (Concord, 1994) o Reaching For The Moon (CMG, 1991) o A Quiet Place (Skyline, 1987) o The Time Of My Life: The Songs Of Steve Allen (Seabreeze, 1986) o 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.

Vocal Jazz Clinics

“In Tune And On Time”
“Jazz: Yesterday And Today”
“The Art Of Vocal Jazz”
“Vocalists Are From Venus, Instrumentalists From Mars”

NJCU * Bucknell University * Singers Forum: London, Macedonia, Fier, Albania, Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Turkey, Cypress, Queenstown, New Zealand * The International Jazz Educators Convention * JazzTimes Convention * New Jersey Music Educators Association * Janice Borla Vocal Jazz Camp, Chicago * University of St. Louis * The Nashville Jazz Workshop * HSPVA, Houston * University of Miami * North Texas State University * Memphis State University * Kings College, Wilkes-Barre, PA * The East Coast Jazz Festival Clinic * Houston Community College