Straight Ahead, the band

About

BAND BIO
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In our 12 years together, we have played a hundreds of events for a wide range of clients, providing great music for dancing and listening. Our band members have worked for superstars such as Sting, Gloria Estefan, Jewel, Joey McIntyre, Maynard Ferguson, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Southside Johnny, Tommy Tune, The Lounge Lizards, and Tina Turner as well as playing for numerous Broadway shows.

Lead vocalist Donna Harris has worked with giants like Garth Brooks and Enya, has appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The Rosie O%u2019Donnell Show, The Grammy Awards, as well as having TV commercials and voiceovers to her credit.

Emmy Award winning composer, pianist, and vocalist John Bauers has several charted pop and dance records to his credit; an Emmy Award for his theme for the Los Angeles Marathon broadcast; and themes for ABC, Lifetime TV, New York Mets, LA Clippers, WNBA, Court TV, WWOR TV, and KCOP TV.

John Bauers, Keyboards, vocals, musical director

John , an Emmy Award winning composer, plays keys and sings lead vocals. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri he earned his degree in music composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, studied arranging with Don Sebesky, and received a National Endowment of the Arts grant to study jazz piano and composition with Joanne Brackeen. He has led blues bands, jazz trios, cabaret shows performing in in Europe, Africa, and all across America. He performs in clubs and restaurants throughout the New York area, and fronts a popular New Jersey Swing Band.
John is a sought after composer of music for TV, documentaries, and audiobooks. He has been given ASCAP writers awards for 15 years running and scored commercials for AOL, Target, Sax Fifth Ave, New York Mets, Los Angeles Clippers, TimeWarner, and Capri Sun. Audiobooks he has scored include bestsellers by Patricia Cornwell, Terry McMillan, Elizabeth Gilbert, Martin Luther King, Kurt Vonnegut, Maeve Binchy, and Jan Karon. John is also active in the community, having served on several non profit boards, including helping to found a local Charter School.


Donna Harris, lead vocals/co-bandleader

Donna grew up in Greenwich Village in a musical family, her mother a singer, her father a singer, tap dancer, drummer and personal friend and singing partner of Frank Sinatra, her brother Michael a drummer, and her brother John Bianculli, a well-known jazz pianst in N.J. She studied acting and received her BFA at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. After working in television, film and theatre, she settled on her first love, singing. She has performed with numerous artists such as Enya and Garth Brooks, appearing on the Grammy telecast, Late Night with David Letterman and Rosie O'Donnell, as well as commericials and numerous voiceovers.
After her recent marriage to the very international guitarist-singer and painter, Ken Richards, Donna received her Master of Social Work degree from RIC. When she can slip away (which is not that often), Donna and her husband love to ride motorbikes and perform in nightclubs on the island of Mykynos in Greece where they own a home and art studio.

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