“One of the best of the new generation of jazz piano players.”
-Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal International

Winner of the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition and a past guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, New York City based pianist/composer Deanna Witkowski has been heralded for her “consistently thrilling” playing and her “boundless imagination” (All Music Guide). Her 2009 release, From This Place, combines ancient and modern sacred texts with the richness of jazz and led to interviews on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, Interfaith Voices, The Living Church, and EWTN’s Faith and Culture. She has performed in venues including the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Tel Aviv Opera House. In 2011, she was the keynote presenter at the William H. Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies Lecture Series at Nazareth College, where she focused on the parallels between jazz improvisation and contemplative prayer. Witkowski’s fifth recording, a solo piano project that melds the essence of selected Chopin nocturnes and preludes with elements of Brazilian music, jazz, and free improvisation, will be released this fall.

“Witkowski’s unique combination of skills: her talent, commitment and clarity of vision, leave many other contemporary jazz artists in the dust. She’s an original!”
-Don Glasgo, Dartmouth College

Hear past interviews aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition:
Deanna Witkowski: Liturgical Jazz
Deanna Witkowski, Live in Studio 4A

This event is co-sponsored by the Cornell Catholic Community, New Life Presbyterian Church, Protestant Cooperative Ministries, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, and Trinity Lutheran Church.