Singer, composer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson (1985, London) successfully proves that academic music and R&B can interact and coexist in harmony.

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Ayanna graduated from the Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance in London and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. She participated in the Panufnik Program for young composers of the London Symphony Orchestra and became a guest artist at the Southbank Center.

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She toured with Anoushka Shankar, recorded with Kingslee James Daley known as Akala. She participated in the Afropeans: Jazz Warriors project of British jazz multi-instrumentalist Courtney Payne. She became the only non-US performer to win the Amateur Night Live television contest, filming at the legendary Apollo theater in New York Harlem.

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Ayanna Witter-Johnson writes music for various productions, arranges and orchestrates, in particular, collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

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Since the release of the Truthully (2011) and Black Panther (2014) minions, Ayanna has toured extensively throughout the UK and Europe and nominated for the MOBO Award. Her music was broadcasted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC 1Xtra.

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In 2019, Ayanna released the Road Runner album under the Hill and Gully Records label. The compositions will become the basis of her concert in Moscow. Her band will consist of a Latvian pianist Tania Ilyashova, specializing in gospel, jazz and neo-soul music, as well as an R&B vocalist Julie Iveta and a singer, songwriter, vocal coach and arranger Alexus Ruth who worked with a variety of artists from Timothy MacKenzie (Labrinth) and Emelie Sande to Kirk Franklin and Lady Gaga.