Cathy DeWitt Musician, Producer, Innovator, Broadcaster
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
An eclectic professional musician since the1970’s,
Cathy DeWitt has shared the stage and the airwaves
with Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Garrison Keillor,
Florida folk legend Will McLean, jazz pianist Rob
Bargad, and others. A jazz vocalist and pianist,
bluegrass guitarist and folksinger/songwriter, she
serves on the Boards of the Gainesville Friends of
Jazz and the Friends of Florida Folk. She is a
nationally published writer, a concert producer, and
bandleader for the jazz quartet MoonDancer and the
all women’s folk/bluegrass band Patchwork, a
favorite on the Florida festival circuit.
In 1995 she found an unexpected setting for her
musical versatility: Shands Arts in Medicine
program in Gainesville, Florida, where she spent the
last eleven years creating a pioneering, world-
renowned Music in Medicine program. From piano
playing in the hospital lobby to elevator singalongs,
from hallway concerts to bedside harp in the ICUs,
Cathy uses music to transform the hospital environ-
ment and the patient experience. A national
consultant for the Society of Arts in Healthcare she
leads workshops and seminars at universities,
conferences, and hospitals worldwide; and spiritual
gatherings and retreats for Unity. She is the winner of
a Fetzer Grant for her Healing Music Programs, a
Florida Arts Council Individual Artist Enhance-
ment Grant, and the National League of
Penwomen’s Gainesville Branch Award for
Music (2005).
Cathy was destined to be a musician; it is literally in
her blood. Before she was born her father Bruce led
his own band in New Orleans, opening for Louis
Armstrong at Pete Fountain’s place. Music filled
her house, from her father’s Dixieland trumpet and
stride piano to the Rachmaninoff and Chopin pieces
her brother Peter, a prodigy pianist, rehearsed every
day on the grand piano in the living room. She
learned much of the great American songbook of
show tunes and jazz as the family gathered to watch
the television variety shows of the 60s.
After singing in choral groups and coffeehouses
during college, Cathy met and began performing with
jazz guitarist Charlie Bush, beginning her career as an
award-winning jazz composer and singer. Performing
throughout Florida and in New York, California,
London, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands, she has sung
with many great musicians, including pianists Dave
Frishberg and Frank Sullivan, guitarist Larry
Camp, and bassist Walter Booker.
Several of her concerts were recorded for broadcast
by North Central Florida’s National Public Radio
affiliate, WUFT, where Cathy produces and hosts a
folk music show, “Across the Prairie,” Sundays at
5:00pm.
Cathy DeWitt has shared the stage and the airwaves
with Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Garrison Keillor,
Florida folk legend Will McLean, jazz pianist Rob
Bargad, and others. A jazz vocalist and pianist,
bluegrass guitarist and folksinger/songwriter, she
serves on the Boards of the Gainesville Friends of
Jazz and the Friends of Florida Folk. She is a
nationally published writer, a concert producer, and
bandleader for the jazz quartet MoonDancer and the
all women’s folk/bluegrass band Patchwork, a
favorite on the Florida festival circuit.
In 1995 she found an unexpected setting for her
musical versatility: Shands Arts in Medicine
program in Gainesville, Florida, where she spent the
last eleven years creating a pioneering, world-
renowned Music in Medicine program. From piano
playing in the hospital lobby to elevator singalongs,
from hallway concerts to bedside harp in the ICUs,
Cathy uses music to transform the hospital environ-
ment and the patient experience. A national
consultant for the Society of Arts in Healthcare she
leads workshops and seminars at universities,
conferences, and hospitals worldwide; and spiritual
gatherings and retreats for Unity. She is the winner of
a Fetzer Grant for her Healing Music Programs, a
Florida Arts Council Individual Artist Enhance-
ment Grant, and the National League of
Penwomen’s Gainesville Branch Award for
Music (2005).
Cathy was destined to be a musician; it is literally in
her blood. Before she was born her father Bruce led
his own band in New Orleans, opening for Louis
Armstrong at Pete Fountain’s place. Music filled
her house, from her father’s Dixieland trumpet and
stride piano to the Rachmaninoff and Chopin pieces
her brother Peter, a prodigy pianist, rehearsed every
day on the grand piano in the living room. She
learned much of the great American songbook of
show tunes and jazz as the family gathered to watch
the television variety shows of the 60s.
After singing in choral groups and coffeehouses
during college, Cathy met and began performing with
jazz guitarist Charlie Bush, beginning her career as an
award-winning jazz composer and singer. Performing
throughout Florida and in New York, California,
London, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands, she has sung
with many great musicians, including pianists Dave
Frishberg and Frank Sullivan, guitarist Larry
Camp, and bassist Walter Booker.
Several of her concerts were recorded for broadcast
by North Central Florida’s National Public Radio
affiliate, WUFT, where Cathy produces and hosts a
folk music show, “Across the Prairie,” Sundays at
5:00pm.
| Explore Cathy's Website! Click the photo to enter. |
| Tunes! Tunes! Tunes! Listen . . . Buy . . . Click the photo to enter. |
