Tough Enough
Janet Ritz is an award-winning U.S. author, musician, photographer and editor. The recipient of the 2009 Green Book Festival Award for Fiction and the 2004 Yamaha International Music Production Prize, Janet Ritz is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Managing Editor of THE ENVIRONMENTALIST Magazine, a journalist with articles carried by Reuters, USA Today, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times, and a writer at Inside Forward Productions.
The youngest daughter of pioneering Associated Press reporter, Rosalie Ritz, Janet Ritz moved with her family to the San Francisco Bay Area, quickly coming to the attention of the local artistic community who introduced her to both the professional recording studio and creative writing environment.
While attending Berkeley High School, Ritz became acquainted with rock music promoter Bill Graham whom had been utilizing the school as a venue for concerts, studied music theory and orchestration with a protégé of French composer, Darius Milhaud, and composition and writing with the brother of writer Anais Nin, UC Berkeley professor (emeritus), Joaquin Nin-Culmell
After her schooling, Ritz was hired by Graham's management division where she worked on later albums by Carlos Santana. Ritz went on to work in a production capacity at CBS Records, as well as at other well-known entertainment corporations, and was encouraged by her mentor, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, to explore writing as a profession.
After Bill Graham made the same recommendation, Ritz moved to Los Angeles, California, where she honed her craft as a writer while working as a recording studio musician/producer and performing as a vocalist with various artists, including actor Jeff Goldblum's band and saxophonist Tom Scott.
In 2004, Ritz co-wrote and recorded, with Los Angeles composer, Jonathan Hayes, four of the eleven songs for her 2005 CD release. It was out of this effort that she received the Yamaha International Music Production Award.
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