Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series. On this episode, we talk with Toronto-based jazz singer, songwriter, and actor Whitney Ross-Barris about her new 2025 album Curtains of Light and a life devoted to the arts.

Curtains of Light is a deeply expressive recording that blends jazz, choral music, neo-soul, spoken word, and folk, weaving intimate human stories of disconnection, longing, and resilience shaped by the challenges of recent years. The album features award-winning multi-instrumentalists Michael Shand and Drew Jurecka, whose contributions further expand its emotional and sonic depth.

Beyond her work as a recording artist, Whitney has appeared at major music festivals as a solo jazz performer and has enjoyed a successful career as an actor, bringing the same emotional intelligence and storytelling to both disciplines. This conversation explores creativity, vulnerability, genre-crossing jazz, and the power of music to heal and connect. Enjoy this interview.

Get the album:

https://whitneyrb.bandcamp.com/album/curtains-of-light

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Joe Dimino Podcaster/Artist

Joe Dimino has been writing & creating in a variety of capacities since his college days at the University of Missouri-Kansas City somewhere around 1993. If you are keeping score, that would be about 29 years+. It all began at UMKCs University News as a Sports Writer & turned into a myriad of expressive avenues. Inventing poems, art, video & audio has always been in the proverbial cards.