JANET RITZ
(Reprinted from Wikipedia)
Janet Ritz is an award winning U.S. author,
musician and environmental activist, the youngest daughter of pioneering
Associated Press reporter, Rosalie Ritz. The recipient of the 2009 Green Book Festival Award for Fiction and the 2004 Yamaha
International Music Production Prize, Janet Ritz is an environmental and geopolitical contributor to
The Huffington Post and the publisher and managing Editor of THE ENVIRONMENTALIST Magazine with articles carried by Reuters, USA Today, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times and other wire services.
Career
Born in Washington, D.C., 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 who 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, but soon expressed disillusionment with the business side of the entertainment business and sought out her mentor,
Joaquin Nin-Culmell, who encouraged her 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.
Public Service
Several of
Ritz's compositions have been used as theme songs for charitable causes,
including actor Dennis Weaver's environmental events known as the
"International Hydrogen Drives," where celebrities form caravans of
alternatively fueled vehicles and drive them through the United States, Canada
and Mexico in an effort to raise public awareness.
Ritz also participated in the U.S.
presidential election, 2004, crafting messages for voters and originating an
Internet based grassroots community active in all fifty U.S. states. Following
the presidential race, Ritz directed her "grassrooters" to transfer
their efforts to charitable causes and returned to her other
pursuits.
Current Focus
Ritz divides her time between publishing, green consulting, music and writing. A trained project manager, Ritz advises clients on lowering their carbon footprint to save energy and costs through a technique known as establishing a thin client. As an author, Ritz's first novel, a geo-political-environmental cautionary tale, received the 2009 Green Book Festival Award for Fiction. Her second, a historical novel with parallels
to current geopolitical events, is slated for completion in 2010. Ritz is also a contributing environmental and
geopolitical writer with The Huffington Post, Reuters, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution and various wire services and is the publisher and managing editor of THE
ENVIRONMENTALIST Magazine.
Links