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Christine Anderson Profile |
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Birth Date: March 25, 1983
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Birth Place: Los Angeles, California, USA
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Birth Name: Christine Elizabeth Anderson
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Biography |
With a live, home-recorded album that has become one of the
biggest surprise hits of the indie music year, Los Angeles
Music Award winner and Music Connection's "hot new artist to
watch," Christine Anderson, exploded onto the scene in
August 2005, after being discovered by Brian Lewis, a
veteran talent buyer and promoter for top Los Angeles venues
like the Key Club, Viper Room, House of Blues and Vault 350.
Unsigned and independent, Anderson has generated a red hot
street buzz with her critically acclaimed live home
recording, Live Summer Session 2005, landing live on-air
interviews, magazine cover stories, and special features on
MTV and Canada's MuchMusic. This summer, Anderson's
bittersweet piano driven anthem, Hollywood Trainwreck, is
racking up spins at a growing number of FM radio stations
across the US, including Clear Channel's KISS FM, giving the
young singer-songwriter and Lewis, her mentor turned
drummer, their first taste of crossover success.
Lauded for her "creative brilliance" by Europe's premier
avant-garde music journal, Mouvement Nouveau: Discover Your
Music, Anderson is ammassing a passionate cult following
with her soulful voice, heartbreaking songwriting, and world
class piano playing. As the summer of 2006 dawns, work
begins on Anderson's debut studio effort, tentatively titled
Poetic Rock N Roll, featuring percussion by Brian Lewis and
engineering by Gregg Karukas.
Late one summer day in August 2005, under the direction of
Brian Lewis and sound man Adam Labov, Christine Anderson put
up a simple microphone in front of the piano in her living
room and recorded an entire album, LIVE, in a single take.
It was as raw and real as music gets: an hour of
improvising, composing songs impromptu, and succumbing
completely to the inspiration as it consumed her.
She called it "Live Summer Session 2005" and posted four of
the tracks on MySpace, an internet portal 65 million members
strong. The music was an instant hit, and it was only a
matter of time before radio deejays were spinning "Hollywood
Trainwreck," and phones were ringing off the hook with
producers, agents, publishers, and managers. Lewis had to
bring on two interns just to deal with Anderson's fan mail
alone!
Nine months after first debuting on the internet, Live
Summer Session 2005 is selling by the thousands on
Anderson's official website, and the album continues to
generate rave reviews in music magazines and newspapers
across The United States and Europe.
Educated at home like Anton Bruckner, Felix Mendelssohn,
Amadeus Mozart, and Francis Poulenc, Christine Anderson
discovered the piano at age nine, and dedicated most of her
waking hours to the mastery of her music. By age eleven, she
had soloed with her first symphony, the Chamber Music
Society of Oregon's Portland Sinfonietta. With music
constantly playing in her head, Anderson was a natural
composer, and in 1991, only months into her musical studies,
she submitted her own Sonatina for solo piano to the Music
Association's Young Composers Project, and won first place.
A long string of solo compositions quickly followed, among
them sonatas, nocturnes, polonaises, and a concertino, as
well as a chamber symphony, a suite of jazz duets, and
myriad works for string ensemble.
Anderson's passion for the masterworks was also fostered
with fervor as she built up an extensive repertoire of
Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, and began competing in and
winning solo artist and duo piano competitions across the
Pacific Northwest. Her exceptional technical execution,
tremendous degree of energy, and sheer speed at the keyboard
belied her young age, leading internationally acclaimed
pianist Wladimir Jan Kohanski to label her a child prodigy
and to encourage her exploration of Bach. She subsequently
entered and won six Bach competition recognitions including
two consecutive Bach Festival gold medals for her animated
performances of J.S. Bach's Preludes and Fugues.
Anderson attended Scripps College for Women on full
scholarship, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Music,
with an emphasis on classical piano performance, under the
tutelage of Dr. Hao Huang of Harvard University, the
Juilliard School and the State University of New York at
Stony Brook. She also earned a concentration in composition
under the direction of Dr. Bill Alves, resident composer at
Harvey Mudd School of Engineering.
Once in southern California, it didn't take long for
Anderson to set her eyes on Hollywood. She wrote and
recorded a five song EP, Pianist Envy, which she scored for
piano and orchestra and recorded with Grammy nominees Derek
Nakamoto and Craig Burbidge. With Pianist Envy under her
belt, she won the Los Angeles Music Award for Composer of
the Year by a unanimous choice vote, garnered special
features on MTV and MuchMusic, and placed her song "Times Of
Your Life" in the soundtrack of the New Centurian film
Officer Down -- on her own, without management, PR, or a
record label.
With a growing catalogue of original material, an extensive
repertoire of classical masterpieces, and a keen ability to
compose hilarious songs about random people in the audience,
right on the spot, Anderson began gigging steadily around
Los Angeles, playing to diverse crowds of enraptured music
lovers, professional musicians, and curious rock stars, who
had never seen anything like her.
Anderson quickly earned reputation for giving sensational
live performances and serving up her soul on a plate of
piano. It was the idea of capturing this live vibe on tape
that led to the making of her critically acclaimed home
recording, Live Summer Session 2005.
Composed impromptu and recorded LIVE in one take, this
inspired album keeps the focus squarely on Anderson's newly
discovered voice, as she takes you on a poignant emotional
journey from despair to redemption. Authoring in full every
one of her songs, both musically and lyrically, Anderson
gives us a taste of a fresh, powerful, and undeniably
compelling breed of alternative pop brimming with melodious
hooks, sing along choruses, and above all vibe. Wonderfully
inventive and startlingly evocative, she delivers each line
of poetry, each piano embellishment with an exquisite level
of artistry, turning out music that is more than catchy and
fun. It is magical, masterful and extraordinary.
"Music has inconceivable powers," says Anderson with a
smile. "It gives wings to the human spirit." |
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