Roseanna Vitro is a jazz singer and educator.
Born Roseanna Elizabeth Vitro in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on February 28, 1951, Vitro began singing at an early age, drawing inspiration from various musical genres like gospel, rock, and R&B, theatre, and classical music. During the 1950s, her father owned a night club in Hot Springs called The Flamingo. He loved Dean Martin's music and opera, and her mother's family sang gospel. By the 1960s, Vitro was determined to be a rock singer. She was exposed to jazz and it became her genre of choice after moving to Houston in the 1970s. Ray Sullenger discovered Roseanna and presented her to the Houston Jazz Community where she studied with voice coach Ray Sullenger and sang frequently with tenor Arnett Cobb.
Vitro worked for two years in Houston's Green Room with her group "Roseanna with Strings and Things" hosting a radio show on KUHF-Fm, which featured guests like Arnett Cobb. Many jazz greats stopped in and played with Strings and Things, such as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Tommy Flanagan and Keter Betts. While in Houston, she performed many times with saxophonist Arnett Cobb, who, along with Sullenger and pianist Oscar Peterson, encouraged her to dedicate herself to jazz. In 1978 she moved to New York City with guitarist Scott Hardy and began to study with Gabore Carelli, a professor from the Manhattan School of Music and started performing with Kenny Werner and Fred Hersch. She also sat in with and ultimately toured with Lionel Hampton. In New York, she appeared at all the major jazz clubs including The Blue Note, Iridium, Birdland, and Dizzy's Jazz Club at Lincoln Center. She also appeared with Steve Allen at New York's Town Hall and recorded an album of Allen's original compositions. In 2005 she performed and recorded live with Kenny Werner at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.