Ayanna Witter-Johnson DRAW THE LINE (2020 Award)

for soprano and double bass

Performed and recorded on 15th November 2020 at the Great Hall, Blackheath Halls, London

performed by Héloïse Werner and Marianne Schofield of The Hermes Experiment

To obtain a copy of any of the commissioned recordings, please contact the Trust at info@michaelcuddigantrust.com

Singer, songwriter, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a rare exception to the rule that classical and alternative R&B music cannot successfully coexist.  

Graduating with a first from both the Laban School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna was a participant in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Scheme and become an Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre. She was a featured artist with Courtney Pine’s Afropeans: Jazz Warriors and became the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, NYC.        

As a composer she has scored original music for various productions and as an arranger and orchestrator Ayanna has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Urban Classic). 

Since releasing her EP’s (Truthfully, Black Panther and Elle, Reuben and Ay) and her debut album Road Runner Ayanna has extensively toured the UK and Europe, whilst gaining a MOBO award nomination and getting airplay on BBC Radio 1 & BBC 1Xtra. A performer of extraordinary versatility her live shows are intimate journeys that chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century. 

Because of her musical prowess, mesmerizing vocals, non-compromising lyrics and ability to deftly reinterpret songs on the cello Ayanna is able to straddle both the classical and urban worlds effortlessly  

She is the definition of eclectic soul. 

ayannamusic.com / facebook.com/ayannawj / twitter.com/ayannawj / instagram.com/ayannawj / youtube.com/ayannawj

The Hermes Experiment is a contemporary quartet made up of harp, clarinet, voice and double bass. They are winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019, Tunnell Trust Awards 2017, Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands 2014, Making Music Selected Artists 2019/20 and Park Lane Group Young Artists 2015/16. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble regularly commissions new works, as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. The ensemble has commissioned over 60 composers at various stages of their careers. They were shortlisted in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2019 in the Young Artists Category and their debut album HERE WE ARE was released in July 2020 on Delphian Records to critical acclaim: “an imaginative disc that mirrors our current musical landscape” – The Observer.

Recent highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3 Open Ear at LSO St Luke’s, Tallinn Music Week, St Petersburg’s Sound Ways Festival, Southbank Centre, Kings Place and Spitalfields Festival. The Hermes Experiment were one of the showcase artists at the Classical:NEXT Conference 2019. In January 2019, they celebrated their fifth birthday with a concert supported by Arts Council England and RVW Trust, and recorded for BBC Radio 3.

The quartet has received funding from Arts Council England, Aldeburgh Music, the RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Britten-Pears Foundation, Future of Russia Foundation, Oleg Prokofiev Trust, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, PRS for Music Foundation and Help Musicians UK.

thehermesexperiment.com / @TheHExperiment