Bio
Short Biography
Bay Area, California-based pianist Anne Rainwater is a dexterous musician known for her vibrant interpretations of works from J.S. Bach to John Zorn. Recognized for her “boldly assertive rhetoric” (San Francisco Examiner) and “bright golden honeycomb for a brain” (Roy Doughty, poet), she appears as a soloist, chamber musician and lecture artist locally and around the country, engaging audiences of classical and contemporary music through solo and group performances, university and community-sponsored lectures and outreach programs, and private lessons. Anne has performed in venues and festivals throughout the US and Europe, including the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria, Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany, the Kennedy Center, Princeton University, University of California San Diego, Louisiana State University, and Le Poisson Rouge, among others. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. Anne curates a monthly musical gathering, founded in 2016, called the Vernon Salon Series, which is currently streaming online. She has released 2 solo albums – J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (2018) and Anywhere But Here (2020), featuring electronic keyboard works by Jude Traxler. Anne is a 2019 recipient of an InterMusic SF Grant. She is working on her first book, which explores the internal and external ecosystems that contribute to the understanding, practicing, and performing of music.
Highlights of the 2022/2023 season include speaking and performing engagements at the University of Baltimore, San Francisco State, and UC Berkeley, a joint, 4-school residency in the Philadelphia area with her duo partner William Lang, and an appearance on the Cal Performances Series with the Eco Ensemble. When not at the piano or writing, she is running long distances, playing tennis, reading, or obsessively watching baseball.
Long Biography
Anne Rainwater is a dexterous pianist known for her vibrant interpretations of works from J.S. Bach to John Zorn. Recognized for her “boldly assertive rhetoric” (San Francisco Examiner) and “bright golden honeycomb for a brain” (Roy Doughty, poet), she appears as a soloist, chamber musician, and lecture artist, and educator. Anne has collaborated with and premiered works by composers Stuart Saunders Smith, Nils Vigeland, Jude Traxler, Anne Hege, Leslie La Barre, Alex Temple, Ken Thomson, Danny Clay, and Matthew Hough, among others. She works regularly with percussionist/composer Jude Traxler, pianist Emily Tian, and trombonist William Lang (as the Lang/Rainwater Project), with whom she has a long-term commissioning project focusing on underrepresented communities in the low brass world.
Diverse appearances include radio interviews on KZYX, KALW, and KALX, chamber music performances at Mass MOCA, and concerto performances at UC San Diego and Mendocino College. She has taken part in two Bach Prelude and Fugue Marathons in San Francisco, where she was praised for her “sympathetic musicianship.” Anne has performed multiple times at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center and San Francisco’s Z Space Theater over the course of her career. Other notable appearances include New York’s Le Poisson Rouge and Bargemusic and Georgia’s Tuesday’s Music Live series.
Guest artist appearances include UC Berkeley, the Music Teachers’ Association of California Convention, Wichita State University, and Cal State East Bay, where she presented a lecture recital on the Goldberg Variations. Showcasing her musical range, Anne toured with the band CocoRosie and vogue dancer Leiomy Maldonado as part of their musical team at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany and the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria, where she arranged pop and opera pieces for the band. She has also worked with members of San Francisco Contemporary Players, Del Sol Quartet, Bang on a Can All Stars, sfSound, loadbang, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Oracle Hysterical, and the Swedish exotica band Ìxtahuele. Anne is a 2019 recipient of an InterMusic SF Musical Grant.
Alongside percussionist Jude Traxler, Anne has performed as the contemporary piano-percussion duo futureCities. Anne and Jude held a residency at Louisiana State University, and they also performed at the Kennedy Center, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Princeton University, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, where Anne was delighted to play on Cage’s own piano. Together, they released an album of all electronic keyboard music in July of 2020, entitled Anywhere But Here.
Anne’s first solo album, J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, was released independently in December 2018. She has also recorded for Original Abstractions, Bourbon Thomas Records, Pinna Records, Subliminal Sounds, and Oberlin Conservatory’s Aural Capacity series. Anne curates a monthly contemporary music gathering out of her home called the Vernon Salon Series, now streaming online. She has trained in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and is very interested in the brain’s understanding and mapping of concepts through a variety of sensory inputs and networks. She has started work on her first book, which explores the internal and external ecosystems that contribute to the understanding, practicing, and performing of music. Anne belongs to Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donates a percentage of their concert fees to organizations they care about.
Anne holds a Bachelors Degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters Degree in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she received the Kraeuter Musical Foundation Award for “excellence in chamber music performance.” While in graduate school, she studied under the tutelage of pianists Anthony de Mare and Christopher Oldfather, who affectionately referred to her as a “special kind of extraterrestrial.” In 2010, Anne was selected to represent the Manhattan School of Music as part of the Kennedy Center’s Conservatory Project. She was a member of the Oakland Youth Orchestra in high school, performing on piano and double bass, and is happy to be living back in the East Bay. When not at the piano or writing, Anne can be found running long distances, playing tennis, reading, or obsessively watching baseball.