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Bianca Pittoors

Singing her own standards and making an authentic human connection every time.

About Me

“A teacher once told me that I had a wonderful gift. When an audience member comes to see me after a show, I want to see in their eyes that they are going home with a joy in their hearts that wasn’t there before. That is the gift they give to me”. - Bianca ”Audiences love her. They love her incredible sound and they love how she makes them feel. It is that simple.” - Robert Fontaine, CBC Radio One, Ottawa

Bianca Pittoors, a French-Canadian from Winnipeg, Manitoba, grew up in a family that offered her a rich variety of musical, cultural and artistic experiences. As a teenager, Bianca headed East and began to pursue – with passion and dedication - her dreams of forging a singing career. Many years later, now a seasoned and polished performer, her dynamic approach to music incorporates her love of mainstream and traditional jazz along with contemporary influences that range from Sting to Charles Aznavour and Burt Bacharach. Always passionately dedicated to the idea of artistic growth, Bianca has reinvented herself over the years, developing along the way a dynamic and tuneful “retro jazz” repertoire. Bianca sees music as an ongoing - and never ending – educational, and spiritual, process. “When I’m onstage, I just know that I feel that I can surrender myself. All the practice and study that has come before is put to the service of something greater. Singing for an audience is a spiritual experience for me”.

Over the course of her career, Bianca has had wonderful opportunities to study and work with some of the great names in Jazz: in Montreal with Ranee Lee; at the Banff Centre for the Arts with Sheila Jordan, and also with Kenny Werner and Jay Clayton. Now she writes and performs her own original music with creative partner Marc Langis under the band name Bianca Basso.

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My Jazz Story

I love jazz because it is sculpting sound. It is about being in the moment and changing even a small thing to make new. I was exposed to jazz from the time I was born. My mother was a musician and had a big variety in her record collection which we all listened to regularly. I met Kenny Werner when I was a volunteer at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. He spoke to me about his process and about playing in the moment. Afterwards I read his book and studied with him at the Banff Centre. It changed my perspective but it also made me realize how important words are for me. I am sure this had a great influence on how I wrote music years later, allowing the music to emerge and the stories to be told. Anyone who has been to one of my shows knows, I have a story for every song I have ever written.

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