Album Notes

American/New Music composer/pianist/teacher Claire Ritter continues to innovate with vision and accomplishment. Early piano study began with Ziggy Hurwitz and Anita B. Tritt of Queens College, Charlotte, NC. Her graduate studies include work with the late jazz legend Mary Lou Williams at Duke University and McArthur Genius Award recipient Ran Blake at New England Conservatory. Dean Smith of the Charlotte Observer recently described her work as "gemlike" and "indescribably American". New York Cadence Magazine describes her as a "visionary calm". Her music represents an artistic quality which weaves a unique blend of classical-jazz styles into one of distinction.

While living in Boston for over fifteen years, Claire Ritter has established a career which includes numerous recordings, in addition to performances by well known worldwide artists, such as Dave Holland, Ran Blake, Ricky Ford, Houston Person, Dominique Eade, Steve Swallow and many others. Her compositions have been recorded on Zoning Recordings, founded in Boston, and European labels such as Soul Note and Hat Art, as well as performed internationally, including Canada, Europe, and Asia. New England Conservatory, where she founded her Contemporary Songwriting class, has hailed her compositions as "a music which lends itself to a vast array of interpretations which is reminiscent of Duke Ellington's music." Boston Globe critic Fernando Gonzalez calls her "an artist to watch", and Bob McCullough of the Boston Globe says this of her music, "... as articulated in a body of work that now emcompases five albums, the musical truths of Claire Ritter are both playful and challenging, cerebral as well as heartfelt, forward-looking rather than rooted in the past...these qualities are rare in music today".