George Whitty is an American musician, composer, record producer, audio engineer and music educator, currently living near
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States. He won an
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
in 2014 for his work as a composer for the television series, ''
All My Children
''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...
'', and produced three
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
winning CDs (most recently
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was born on Nov ...
's ''
34th N Lex''). Whitty was nominated for Emmy Awards for his composing on the long-running TV shows ''
One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' and ''
As the World Turns
''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...
''.
As a musician, he has played and recorded with artists such as
Dave Matthews and
Santana
Santana may refer to:
Transportation
* Volkswagen Santana, an automobile
* Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles
* Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer
Boats
* Santana 20, an American sailboat design by W. D. Sch ...
(''
Supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
''),
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
(''
Falling into You
''Falling into You'' is the fourth English-language and fourteenth studio album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released on 11 March 1996 by Columbia/ Epic Records. The follow-up to her commercially successful album '' The Colour of My Love'' ( ...
'' and ''
These Are Special Times
''These Are Special Times'' is the seventeenth studio album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, and her first English-language Christmas album. It was first released in Europe on 30 October 1998, by Columbia Records. In the United States, it ...
''), Michael and
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was born on Nov ...
(four years on the road, seven albums),
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...
(''
The Woman I Am
''The Woman I Am'' is the eighth studio album by American R&B/ funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1992. It was Khan's first studio album since 1988's '' CK'' and due to artistic differences between Khan and Warner Bro ...
''),
Richard Bona
Richard Bona (born 28 October 1967) is a Cameroon-born American multi-instrumentalist and singer.
Early life
Bona Penda Nya Yuma Elolo was born in Minta, Cameroon, into a family of musicians, which enabled him to start learning music from a y ...
,
Chris Minh Doky
Chris Minh Doky (born 7 February 1969) is a Vietnamese- Danish jazz bassist. He is the younger brother of jazz pianist Niels Lan Doky. He released his first album, ''Appreciation'', in 1989 four years after picking up the instrument.
As a si ...
,
Sadao Watanabe,
Grover Washington Jr.
Grover Washington Jr. (December 12, 1943 – December 17, 1999) was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.
He wr ...
,
Till Brönner
Till Brönner (born 6 May 1971 in Viersen, West Germany) is a jazz musician, trumpeter, flügelhorn player, singer, composer, producer and photographer.
History
From 1989–1991, Brönner was a member of the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combin ...
(''Midnight'') and other well-known artists. His discography includes more than 100 CDs as a record producer or musician, and he has hundreds of compositions for film and television playing on everything from nature documentaries to feature films to TV reality shows and some of long-running television series.
In 2012, he formed the electric jazz trio, Third Rail, with Tom Brechtlein on drums and Janek Gwizdala on bass. In 2013, the band released the live CD ''Ignition: Live Across Europe'', composed of tracks recorded on the band's first tour of Europe. In August 2012, he performed at the
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...
with
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
,
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...
,
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...
,
Marcus Miller
William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...
,
Dave Holland
David “Dave” Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years.
His extensive discography r ...
and
Zakir Hussein in the Concert for Peace. In 2014, he appeared on several tracks as an orchestrator, synthesizer player and sound designer on Hancock's album, ''
The Imagine Project
''The Imagine Project'' is the forty-sixth and latest studio album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock released on June 22, 2010. Prominent guests include John Legend, India Arie, Seal, Dave Matthews, Jeff Beck, Chaka Khan, Tedeschi & Tr ...
''.
In 2015, he also began teaching jazz piano through
ArtistWorks ArtistWorks, LLC is an online music learning education platform based out of Napa, CA. ArtistWorks was founded by David and Patricia Butler in 2008. The company developed a proprietary patented system for interacting with teachers based upon online ...
, an online music education website.
In 2018, Whitty arranged three Hancock pieces for the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...
with Hancock playing piano, which were performed at
Disney Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand ...
.
Whitty was born and raised in
Coos Bay, Oregon
Coos Bay ( Coos language: Atsixiis) is a city located in Coos County, Oregon, United States, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one en ...
, and is a 1980 graduate of Marshfield High School.
His brother, playwright
Jeff Whitty
Jeffrey Daniel Whitty (born September 30, 1971) is an American playwright, actor, and screenwriter.
For the stage musical ''Avenue Q'', he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.
For his work on the Fox Searchlight film '' Can You Ever F ...
won a Tony Award for "Best Book for a Musical" for ''Avenue Q'', and was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019. George Whitty's website and blog can be found online, and he has been teaching via Skype for many years, both jazz improvisation and production in Logic; more information is also available online.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitty, George
Living people
American jazz pianists
American jazz keyboardists
American music educators
American television composers
American film score composers
American audio engineers
Record producers from Oregon
Songwriters from Oregon
Emmy Award winners
Grammy Award winners
People from Coos Bay, Oregon
Year of birth missing (living people)