Written by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, singer-songwriter, cellist, composer and MOBO-nominee has been taking the world by storm since her debut release in 2019, Road Runner. An astounding artist. There is something so beautifully electrifying about Ayanna, an energy that exudes from everything she does. She embodies a depth of emotion rarely seen and brings the truth of experiences to audiences in an exciting, powerful and accessible way.
Photo by Jordan Woods
An inspirational storyteller, Ayanna is a master at using music to tell not just her own stories, but narrating the depth of experience of communities across the world. Growing up in a community of creativity, her mother was a dancer in the Ghanaian dance troupe, Aguje and Ayanna was surrounded by dance, poetry readings and the joy of a shared arts space.
Storytelling is definitely a part of my language that I’ve been able to label in that way as I’ve gone on and written different types of music, composed, different types of suites, songs, compositions. I can kind of zoom out and say, yes, I definitely have an interest in sharing stories. Partly because my Jamaican heritage has a lot of storytelling – in the folk music, the poetry, in gatherings and sharing stories and even in your own family. I think I’ve grown up with a language of appreciating the art of storytelling. That makes me feel as though I’m in a community with people.
Performing live is my favourite part of all of this and so, when I’m in the room and I’m with a live audience and I’m sharing stories, even talking between songs as well as within the songs themselves, it makes me feel as though I’m building a bond between us and a shared space. I just appreciate it. I think we all take something. I don’t try to dictate what anyone should take from the stories, but I think there’s just always growth and learning. And I think more than anything, growth is probably my biggest passion.
Working in a range of genres and creating a unique and authentic sound, Ayanna brings life to everything she does through her virtuosic tool box – cellist, composer, singer/songwriter, performer. Navigating the different worlds of classical instrumental compositions to lyric- driven songs, Ayanna feels and reacts to the differences and the similarities.
Photo by Hypemari
It is fascinating because I’m still figuring out how and where these two worlds meet. I think the closest that has come for me was working with the LSO Percussion Ensemble on Ocean Floor, where it’s storytelling and composition, and voice and not voice, all sitting alongside each other in this one project. I think I have to hang on to more than the narrative of the story in the bigger sense when I’m working on a composition, I have to really be inside almost the visual of it – where we’re going, what the journey of it is – in order to know how to shape it. I think when you’ve got words, it’s easy to pin an emotion on it and allow the melody to just kind of express that. But without the words to give that clarity, I have to create a world for myself. Sometimes, visually, I might draw where the journey is going, or I might have characters, or I might have different movements that will be expressing different things. But it definitely changes. And depending on the instrument you’re working with, the way in which the melody is expressed. So, you can kind of live in the land of not being so obvious about how to translate those emotions when you’re not adding a lyric to it. There’s a different type of freedom. I think when in classical spaces, there’s often a programme note, and it’s so encouraged to read it and people do read them and they hang on to them. So, I think there’s often a slight steer as to where I’m coming from at least. But that doesn’t mean that the audience don’t take it wherever they want to, which is also great with me.
Ayanna truly comes to life in a live performance setting and the relationship she has with her audiences is palpable. Irrelevant of genre or setting, Ayanna finds the commonality, and forms an unbreakable bond with people.
I think across the board, there’s active listening, I would say. People are really tuned in, whether or not they’re vocal or they’re more quiet and they’re letting it wash over them. They are really listening, and I feel that. And I get that because I talk to the audience in between things, and I’m always struck by how open people are emotionally after the show. No matter where I’m performing, I’ll always have a deep conversation with someone at the merch stand or by the side of the stage when I’m packing up, or they’ll express something in terms of their emotions and their feelings mid-show when I’m talking to the audience. So, I feel like in a lovely way, I just connect with the humanity of whoever’s in the room, regardless of what the culture might be around.
Prior to releasing her album New Roots on September 18th, we have been gifted with two singles – ‘Pioneers’ and ‘You Can Have Everything’. Through ‘You Can Have Everything’ Ayanna tells us we can indeed have everything.
I know, it’s controversial. I think it was a way of resisting that period where everything was in lockdown and everything was taken away and stripped away and we all had that sense of a lack of freedom and uncertainty and fear. And yes, you can have everything, at least you can imagine it. ‘You Can Have Everything’ is unlike anything on the album. It is my wild card song, kind of fun, slightly scary. I wanted to burst back onto the scene with something just fresh and different, and something you could feel in your body. It was really important that the music felt danceable in this chapter and had a sense of joy. It felt like a risk, but the risk I wanted to take. Making the video was a kind of the embodiment of yes, this is music to be felt in your body on all the levels – and it’s fun.
In complete contrast, the powerful second single released, ‘Pioneers’ addresses the plagiarisation of Black culture, cycles of extraction, erasure, and resilience, while affirming for me the foundational role of African cultures in shaping the world as we know it today. Intensity, beauty and light – all part of Ayanna’s artistry.
It’s one of my favourites on the album. It started life when the bass line came to me a few years back when I was on the road with Andrea Bocelli. I expanded it and created the song, a slightly more classicalized version of it for Ocean Floor with the LSO percussion ensemble. But I’ve always felt like it was a standalone song. I wanted to produce a version that is closer to what I originally imagined it to be. It’s full-on, hard-hitting, straight to the heart of black culture and the exploitation of black artistry over the years. And it’s so daring lyrically. There’s a directness, but at the same time, it’s observational and it’s not saying what I want you to think about it, it’s putting the conversation in the room and just saying, there it is.
How is it that we just keep on giving giving giving yeah
Everything we make becomes a trend you keep on stealing yeah.
Life began with us, we harmonise, we trust, we live in peace together
Throughout her work, Ayanna speaks to what needs to be heard, explored and considered. This is one of the many ways she connects with her audiences, an authentic voice, allowing the space for reflection and conversation and importantly, emotion.
It’s something that I’ve always done. I’ve got a propensity to want to put a hard conversation in the space, but then also in a beautiful way, in a way that people can enjoy on different levels. One of my previous songs, ‘Black Panther’, is like that. It sounds like a love song, but it’s pretty hardcore. I love that people can receive things on different levels. It’s almost like protest music, but without shouting. It’s a way of having or starting a conversation in a way that feels good.
Releasing on Sept 19th, the upcoming album New Roots, is Ayanna’s second release. Mostly written during lockdown, it is an album of reflection with themes that fuel Ayanna along with her cello Reuben, who was a ‘grounding force’ throughout the process.
You can expect more intimacy, more emotions. It’s like a cosmic, emotional, revelatory, encouraging, uplifting and healing journey. It’s really raw. I was processing a lot because a lot changed for me in my career from the start of lockdown to now, there was just like a boom in activity in all the ways: compositionally, performance, and touring with Peter Gabriel, touring with Andrea Bocelli, collaborating again with Anoushka Shankar. There were so many different things and releasing my own EPs. I think many of these songs were ways in which I processed a lot of big feelings and changes during that time. I’m really proud of it. I produced my first album from start to finish. I had an idea, and it’s going to soon be in my hands in vinyl format and CD format. I’m just as proud of the journey to this point, as well as the songs themselves. I think if you promise yourself you want to achieve something or release something or do something, and you actually do it, that in itself is already an achievement.
With dates around the world lined up including Bulgaria, London, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands. Ayanna does not stop and knows the challenges of being an artist in today’ s world.
I have so many challenges but at the same time, I feel so super blessed. I have had and continue to have some wonderful experiences meeting beautiful people, lovely performances. It is just a lot but obviously, I’m happy to do the work. Some days I wake up, and I have to push myself through, and other days it’s easier. But that is what it is. In any field, you’re going work hard. You have to put yourself in the center of things. It’s exposing, I guess, it’s on all the levels, physically demanding, emotionally demanding. You’ve got all your vulnerabilities for the public to observe and sometimes I do wonder why am I doing this? But I’m very interested in my spiritual life.
I’m not religious, but I definitely believe in a higher power of some sort. I definitely think we’re all equal in that regard. So if I’m performing, I’m equal to everyone, and everyone’s equal to me. And so there’s this sense of shared reverence that I have for the audience. So I’m always humbled if I perform and it resonates with someone, and we have a real connection and just keeping it real with people in life is the most important thing. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I don’t care who you are, wherever you are. I’m always looking for the honesty in that interaction. And so I just try and keep myself grounded. Not buying into any sort of like ego inflation, quite honestly.
Photo by Tatiana Gorilovsky
It is still quite rare to see a cellist at the forefront, and the all-encompassing nature of Ayanna’s work enables her to share her work with hugely diverse audiences across the world. With many accolades and a scholarship programme in her name (The Ayanna Witter-Johnson Rising Star Scholarship) Ayanna is a role model to so many.
There can never be too many positive people in life to look up to and feel inspired by. And if it means that you’re following your path and your own journey, and you can learn something from me or take something from me, I am all for it. I love that. I think with putting people on a pedestal, there’s a fine line between feeling inspired and idolizing but I think we all need to feel inspired. If you feel brave enough to reach out and ask them for support that’s wonderful. So, yeah, I’ll take that happily.
For me, authenticity is probably one of the most important aspects of your art history. There is a place for learning from the greats and other musicians and honing your craft and I’ve spent my fair share of hours listening to Dinah Washington, Nina and everybody. But in terms of your own personal expression, in your own artistry, you have to be brave enough to explore, share, embrace and develop your own sound and to know that that is kind of the beauty of the entire journey, because there’s only one of you. Enjoy that pathway of embracing who you are and it can change. It doesn’t remain the same, but that’s the joy for the audience as well to experience you for who you are. There are lots of ways to do that and now more than ever, it’s easier to record yourself. It’s probably easier to release music than it ever has been. You don’t have to throw yourself into the ring straight away, but your journey and documenting your voice and allowing people to hear you: I think that’s really important.
This article was first published in the Women in Jazz Media July 2026 magazine
Last modified: August 28, 2026
