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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