Roberta Donnay

Roberta Donnay is an award-winning singer and songwriter jazz vocalist, composer, and band leader produced by Orrin Keepnews. Donnay grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and learned to sing from the radio. She is a practicing Buddhist. She began singing professionally at 16, wandering Europe with a knapsack and borrowing guitars on-site. Moving to San Francisco, she sang with Dick Oxtot's Golden Age Jazz Band, followed by Tom Keats and His Tom Kats. She then studied Latin jazz, vocal jazz, and guitar from various teachers. Her first CD, Catch the Wave, was the first indie CD released in the San Francisco Bay area. As a singer/songwriter, Donnay toured the U.S. with her guitar and appeared on various shows. In 1999, she signed a publishing deal with Heavy Hitters Music and began writing songs for film and television. Jazz being her first love, she was influenced at an early age by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bessie Smith. Donnay returned to singing jazz full-time in 2005. She and Keepnews were both Governors of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which is how they met.