Artists:Elise Witt

Singer-Guitarist ELISE WITT was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English and sings in at least a dozen languages. Among her ancestors, Elise claims "Wedding March" composer Felix Mendelssohn and his grandfather, Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn; Protestant cow farmers from northern Germany; Russian chemists; Polish intellectuals; French Bordeaux wine growers; a British painter; and a great great aunt from Cuba.

Since 1977, Elise has been working professionally as Singer, Guitarist, Educator, and Resident Artist around the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

Recently returned from a cultural exchange to South Africa, Elise has sung everywhere from New York's Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the People's Voice Café to Festivals like Clearwater's Hudson River Revival and Falcon Ridge; from Minneapolis' Gingko Coffeehouse to Nashville's Bluebird Cafe; from the Jinotepe Harvest Festival in Nicaragua to the Popular Music Festival in Siena Italy; and from the Open Door to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. In 1995 Elise was chosen to represent the State of Georgia for the Kennedy Center's 25th Anniversary Celebration and in 1997 she joined Muhammed Ali and Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter in celebrating the 20th anniverary of the Friendship Force. For the year 2000, Elise was also chosen as a Residency Artist for "America Creates for the Milennium."

Elise's music is as colorful as her background. Her original songs include "Why Are Our Eyes in the Front of Our Heads?" (a capella jazz vocal ); "Those Gorgeous Fishes" (an ode to snorkeling); "Natural Phenomena" (a song about spiders, lynx, salmon, eel, and humans, sung to the tune of a Greek sirtaki); "That Silver Sliver of a Moon" (a celestial love song); the irreverant "Too Busy for the Blues"; and "Au Revoir Les Bateaux" (a bluesy bilingual tune).

The Raleigh NC Times says, "Her performance is like a suitcase plastered with stickers from around the world… populated with interesting characters both heroic and comic." In addition to her own songs and songs by songwriter friends from around the United States, a concert also introduces audiences to Chilean songwriter Violeta Parra's moving love song to life "Return to Age Seventeen;" "The Time of Cherries" (an ancient and haunting French waltz); the spirited "Michelemmà" (from Italy's sunny South), as well as songs in Kiswahili, Japanese, Danish, Hebrew, English, and Sign Language.

Aside from quirky song titles and international flair, the real reason to go hear Elise Witt is her charismatic stage presence and her gorgeous voice. The Louisville KY Courier says, "Her straightforward charm and pure, strong voice are truly fine music to the ears." All of Elise's songs come straight from the heart. Her voice has the power to carry you to distant lands as well as inner landscapes. And by the end of a concert, it is not unusual to have the entire audience (self-professed "non-singers" included) to be singing in fabulous seven-part harmony!

LOVE BEING HERE is the ninth recording on Elise's own EMWorld Records label. The title comes from a Peggy Lee song, "I Love Being Here With You." This CD marks a new musical direction for Elise, who for years has been known around Atlanta and around the country as an international folk songstress. LOVE BEING HERE takes Elise in a more jazz and world music direction, with accompaniments including piano, horns, accordion, cello, and southern African 'mbira..