Music and Message | Sacred Jazz: Guest Pianist Deanna Witkowski

Hailed by Jazz Journal International as “one of the best of the new generation of jazz piano players,” Deanna Witkowski is a rising star on the jazz scene. A leading authority on the music of jazz legend Mary Lou Williams, Witkowski has curated a program of sacred jazz featuring her trio and the Hendricks Chapel Choir.

For more info, view  Deanna’s website.

Known for her adventurous, engaging music that heals the soul, pianist-composer-vocalist Deanna Witkowski moves with remarkable ease between Brazilian, jazz, classical, and sacred music. Her first book, Mary Lou Williams: Music For The Soul (Liturgical Press), published in September 2021, is the winner of the 2022 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award and the 2022 Jazz Journalists Association Award for Biography of the Year. Her seventh recording, Force of Nature (MCG Jazz), released in January 2022, reached number five on the JazzWeek nationwide radio chart and remained in the top ten most played albums on jazz radio for more than ten weeks. The two projects cap a twenty-year deep dive into the ground-breaking impact of Williams’ life and music, making Witkowski one of the few living authorities on the iconic pianist. As a sought after Williams expert, she has presented at the Kennedy Center, Duke University, Fordham University, and performed Williams’ compositions as a featured guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Music and Message is the popular weekly series from Hendricks Chapel that features musical performances and spoken reflection from diverse religious and spiritual perspectives. These gatherings seek to nurture the soul and ignite the spirit, and we invite all students, faculty, staff and community members for another season of inspiration.

Click HERE to access this concert via YouTube live stream.

Click HERE to view the program!

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