Whitney Ross-Barris

Prairie-born, Toronto-based jazz singer, songwriter and actor Whitney Ross-Barris makes music that moves freely between jazz, soul, pop, choral and folk. With the warmth, wit and storytelling instincts of a lifelong stage performer, Whitney is known for her immersive sets that can lead a room from laughter to tears and back again.

Her new album, Curtains of Light (2025), is a collection of Whitney’s original songs with arrangements by in-demand Juno and Grammy-winning musicians Michael Shand and Drew Jurecka. Written during the pandemic, while isolating with her three young children, and made with the support of the Ontario Arts Council and her community of fans, this, her fourth record, has earned such acclaim as:  “a triumph of musical genre-blending” (The WholeNote) and “a stunning album” (The Intelligencer). Paris Move wrote “this record does something increasingly rare: it breathes,” and All About Jazz praised Whitney as “a composer of exceptional sensitivity.”

As a solo jazz artist, Whitney has performed at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, Niagara Jazz Festival, Molly Johnson’s Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the Springtide Music Festival, the Port Hope Jazz Festival and the Markham Jazz Festival. In 2026, the Durham Regional Excellence in Arts, Music & Sound (DREAMS) Awards named Whitney Ross-Barris as Solo Artist of the Year. She has appeared regularly in JAZZ.FM91’s One Stop Vocal Jazz Safari and has guest hosted for the station on several occasions. In 2026, she created, curated and co-hosted Springtide Sessions, a limited-run radio series on North Durham's 105.5 Hits FM celebrating the artists of the Springtide Music Festival. Nationally, her own recordings can be heard on JAZZ.FM91 and CBC Radio.

Whitney’s compositions and lyrics have appeared on stage (Woyzeck, Red Light District), on film (Prodigals, Whiskaye, Sociable Films, Artists & Aliens, Magicland, Jaymz Bee) and in collaboration with other artists (The Art of Breath, Volume One, John MacMurchy, Christmas on Seaton Street, Number 9 Audio.) Her earlier recordings also include her self-produced, self-titled debut EP in 2009, Everybody's Here (2012) and The Bright Lunch Trio (2017), co-written with guitarist Nathan Hiltz.

In addition to a career in music, Whitney has performed across Canada, in the United States and Europe for almost 30 years as a professional theatre actor (most notably  Assassins, Talk is Free Theatre ­– Toronto, Manitoba Theatre Centre; Gorey Story, The Thistle Project; and Stormen, Follo Folkehøgskole – Vestby Norway). This extensive background in theatre brings an engaging and fearless approach to every club performance.

In the words of veteran JAZZ FM broadcaster John Devenish, “add an influencers’ list as rounded and iconic as these names, Chet Baker, Tom Waits, Louis Armstrong, Anita O’Day, Mel Tormé, Marvin Gaye, Oscar Peterson; then further stir up the ante with a background in theatre and you’re in for the spirited original artistry of Whitney Ross-Barris.”

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