Dr. Anne K. Hege, Artistic Director
Dr. Anne K. Hege Dr. Anne K. Hege creates musical worlds that invite an awareness of and attention to the body and our present moment. In her work as a conductor, composer, vocalist, and instrument builder, she explores the roots of musicality in the intersection of ensemble interaction, technology, embodiment, and expression. Working as a choral conductor since 1999, Hege founded and directed new music and technology-focused ensembles Folk3000 (1999-2001), Cuatro Vientos (2004-2006), and Celestial Mechanics (2007-2010). She developed her style as a conductor supporting community empowerment through choral practices as director of the Albany Community Chorus (2000-2004), Holy Names University Chorus (2013-2016), Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble (2013-2017), and Level IV of the SF Girls Chorus (2015-2022).
Hege’s compositions have been performed and commissioned by ensembles worldwide, including So Percussion, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Stanford Laptop Orchestra, Google Mobile Devices Ensemble, loadbang, Ensemble Klang, Clerestory, NOW Ensemble, and Volti SF. From 2008–present, Hege has composed musical scores for Carrie Ahern Dance with over 50 performances of these works. Hege has received awards and grants, including a New Music USA Project Grant, Mark Nelson Fellowship (Princeton University), Composer-in-Residence (Resound Ensemble), Visiting Artist (CCRMA, Stanford University and Cal Poly), Research Affiliate (CACPS, Princeton University), Elizabeth Mills Crothers Prize (Mills College), Gwen Livingston Pokora Prize in Music Composition (Wesleyan University) and Associate Artist Residency (Atlantic Center for the Arts). She recently premiered her first opera, The Furies: A Laptopera, commissioned by the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, and released her first self-titled album with her duo New Prosthetics. In addition to leading the Peninsula Women’s Chorus, Hege regularly tours and performs on her analog-live looping instrument and raises her three wonderful daughters while working on her second opera for live voices and laptop orchestra. www.annehege.com
Anne Rainwater, Collaborative Pianist
Concert 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 engages audiences as a soloist, chamber musician, and lecture artist locally and around the country. Anne has performed in venues and festivals throughout the US and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, the Donau Festival in Austria, Kampnagel in Germany, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, and Bargemusic. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. Anne curates a monthly musical gathering called the Vernon Salon Series, which she founded in 2016. She has released 3 solo albums – J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (2018), Anywhere But Here (2020), featuring electronic keyboard works by Jude Traxler, and Ave Maria: Variations on a Theme by Giancinto Scelsi (2023), a vocal and piano work by Ian Power out on Carrier Records. 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 her 2023/2024 season include performances at Santa Clara University and Cal State East Bay in California and Roulette in Brooklyn, New York. She also has an upcoming record release on New Focus Records featuring a trombone and piano single by Brooklyn composer Scott Wollschleger. When not at the piano or writing, Anne is running long distances, playing tennis, reading, or obsessively watching baseball. www.annerainwater.com