Not since Mary Lou Williams has there been a pianist
who has melded jazz and liturgy into such a joyous, accessible art form.
Witkowski has saved her most honest and soulful music for her
2009 sacred jazz recording, From This Place. |
Click here to listen or purchase.
"Every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-
trying to communicate themselves, understood or not- miracles have
happened."
-Duke Ellington, from note to his First Sacred Concert
As a musician with a deep love for jazz and for the Church, Ellington's
quote urges me on, as does the legacy of Mary Lou Williams. I strive to "throw away fear in pursuit of honesty"
in bringing together the richness of both jazz and liturgy.
Deanna's setting of Take My Life and Let it Be.
Purchase the mp3 and a pdf of the sheet music here.
Press: interviews and reviews
Watch a clip from Deanna's October 2010 interview on EWTN's Faith and Culture.
Listen to Deanna's Easter 2009 interview on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.
Read Deanna's April 2010 article on Mary Lou Williams, "Mary Lou's Sacred Jazz."
Listen to Deanna's extensive interview on sacred jazz at Interfaith Voices.
For a more extensive listing of press interviews, check out the sidebar.
Sacred jazz in your neighborhood
Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple and Deanna after an October 2008 jazz vespers at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Durham, North CarolinaCheck out the bulletin from St. Luke's to get a sense of how evening prayer and jazz can enrich each other!
Deanna travels extensively presenting sacred jazz in services, concerts, and workshops. She is happy to work with church music directors in making her music available to choirs and congregations in advance of an appearance.
Testimonials:Deanna brings a rare musical intelligence to the music of the liturgy, supporting the familiar texts of the church with inventive melodies and rich harmonic movement. She's a major talent who has much to offer to the worlds of jazz and faith.Bill Carter, jazz pianist and pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit, PA Christ
Church Cathedral (Springfield, MA), recently hosted Deanna Witkowski and her
trio on a return visit (in March 2010), five years after their first appearance here.
It was worth the wait! At both the evening concert and in the service
on Sunday morning, Deanna displayed her usual freshness, originality,
and sensitivity across the range of moods, from meditative to
high-energy.
And what chops she has! She plays, composes, and improvises with total assurance, always appropriate to the text, the moment, the event. And, as a musician myself, I am simply in awe of the amazing harmonic vocabulary she has at her command, and so effortlessly employs. Many members of the congregation made a point of expressing their pleasure at her return, and their hope that she'd be back again soon. Peter B. Beardsley, Music Director at Christ Church Cathedral Download more testimonials and a listing of venues where Deanna has presented her sacred music here.
When David danced before the Arc of God, some folk were scandalized, but
God was pleased, for David's dance was an expression of his joyful
abandon to the Spirit of the living God. Witkowski's playing has that
same spirit of joyful abandon. God's love poured out and touched even
those who were convinced that jazz was not even good music, let alone a
means of grace. When our jazz service ended the first person to speak
with me was the chair of the worship committee who said, "When can we
get her back?"
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Workshops
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