INGRID STITT (saxophonist, pianist, educator) was born into a musical family on November 26, 1956 in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, and began playing the saxophone early in life. She studied at McGill University in Montreal, obtaining a Bachelor of Music degree there, before embarking on a full-time playing career which saw her working in Montreal and Toronto for the next few years with a variety of performers including Charlie Biddle, Tommy Banks, Bo Diddley, Slim Williams, Corey Hart, Rita McNeil, and Jim Galloway.

Stitt always led her own jazz quartets and quintets throughout the years she worked in Eastern Canada, but was also a member of several other bands and ensembles. She joined the fusion band “Tchukon” in 1984 and played with them for five years. She was a member of Jim Galloway’s ‘Wee Big Band’ for several years in the early ‘90s, a time when she also played with the Toronto ‘Women with Horns’ band.

Relocating to Vancouver in 1996, Stitt returned to university, earning her Bachelor and Master of Education Degrees at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria. In addition to teaching secondary music in the Burnaby School District, she remains active as an adjudicator for the Vancouver and Surrey school jazz festivals and as a clinician for various summer music schools in British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. She has been a member of the Douglas College Big Band since 1998, and for the past seven years, has played with the “Mother of Pearl” all-female Jazz Quartet. She leads a recently-formed jazz quartet, ‘Groove Manoeuver’ and is a featured soloist with the ‘Good Noise’ Vancouver Gospel Choir and the Douglas College Night Band.

The Ingrif Stitt Quintet (Terry Promane on trombone, David Restivo on piano, bassist Jim Vivian, and drummer Ted Warren) was featured in the “Sound of Toronto Jazz” Concert Series at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto on March 20, 1995.

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