Ayanna Witter-Johnson

DreamCity is a vibrant, energetic and rhythmically pulsing song without words for string orchestra.  Inspired by conversations with the young string players of the LSO East London Academy (ELA) on their personal experiences of the lockdowns that occurred in 2020, I drew upon the themes of personal creativity, perseverance, uncertainty, dreams, dance and playing games.

The process of creating this piece was unique to us all in that I first created a series of 34 individual fragments that reflected the themes. These themes composed for Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello and Double Bass were then recorded by five Members of the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's. From these recordings, I created a series of 'backings' to support each of the 34 fragments that the LSO East London Academy would later record.

With the support of the five LSO Members as section mentors, the fragments were learned and then recorded by the ELA players at home to create a total of 480 recorded audio fragments that I then used as raw material to build the piece. 

As a collective, I felt that we were all linked through our experiences of living in one of the world's most active and engaging cities, physically and culturally, and I wanted to reflect that in the energy of the piece, combining the elements of classical lyricism and edgy inner city vibe. Working with Deon Elsworth on the video added an important dimension to the music in that it enhanced and expanded the themes, really bringing to life the energy of the cultural city backdrop of the piece and balancing it with dreamy underwater scenes in a melting pot of colours and movement that to me represents DreamCity.

_{Note by Ayanna Witter-Johnson}

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Singer, songwriter, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson proves that classical and alternative R&B music can successfully coexist.

Graduating with a first from both Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna was a participant in the LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme and became 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 Theatre in Harlem, NYC.

As a composer she has been commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Güerzenich Orchester, Ligeti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company and as an arranger/orchestrator for the London Symphony Orchestra (Hugh Masekela, Belief!) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Urban Classic).

Ayanna has released EPs (Truthfully, Black Panther and Ella, Reuben & Ay) and her debut album Road Runner via her own record label (Hill and Gully Records), working with producers Marc Mac (4Hero), James Yarde (Terri Walker, Jamelia, Eric Benet) and with artists including pianist Robert Mitchell and rapper Akala. Other artists Ayanna has collaborated with include Anoushka Shankar and Nitin Sawhney. She has extensively toured the UK and several countries in Europe, whilst gaining a MOBO nomination, receiving airplay on stations including BBC Radio 1, 1xtra, 2, 3, 4, 6, BBC London, BBC Manchester, Jazz FM and Scala Radio, TV features on BBC One London News and London Live and producing three commercial music videos via her YouTube channel.