A
native Texan, Anne began her career in show business attending The
Academy of The Washington Ballet for high school before graduating
from The Juilliard School of Drama when she was only twenty years
old. She worked extensively in classical theatre (major roles in
Shakespeare, Miller, Ionesco and the like...) before making her
Broadway debut as Grace Farrell in Annie. This lead to an
opportunity to sing at the White House Easter party for President
Reagan, and later for Itzakh Shamir for the fortieth birthday of
Israel.
Film work includes playing Dudley Moore's wife in Marshall Brickman's
Lovesick, as well as appearing in Clean and Sober,
and in Peter Weir's Fearless. She also made numerous appearances
on series television.
One
of her favorite musical appearances was starring with Amanda
McBroom in Harry Chapin, Lies and Legends in Chicago
(also recording the cast album of that show). Returning to Broadway
to appear in Threepenny Opera with Sting in 1990, she followed
that by creating the role of Margaret in the musical Jekyll and
Hyde opposite John Cullum.
In 1996, Anne made her debut cabaret appearance at The Gardenia
in Hollywood. Her husband, renowned guitarist and four-time Grammy
nominee Robben
Ford, produced her first solo CD, In the
Nest of the Moon, which Josef Woodard of The L.A. Times
called, "An impressive debut CD...simply a celebration of the
American popular song."
Anne
then began her longtime collaboration with her musical director
John Boswell on a tribute to Stephen Sondheim and his mentor, Oscar
Hammerstein, which LA Weekly called, "An earful of some
of the best interpretations of both Hammerstein and Sondheim,"
and caused LA Jazz Scene to declare, "She is more than
ready for stardom." Selections from that show entitled Something
Wonderful was released on the LML Music label in 1998.
In Spring of 2000, Anne was the vocalist for the Kurt
Weill's centenary in Cologne, Germany, also touring to Dusseldorf
and Liege, Belgium. Her husband Robben was the featured guitarist
in this program conducted by Roger Kellaway, who also wrote the
arrangements.
In
May, 2001, joined by a twenty seven piece American big band, she
made her US concert debut with an encore presentation of this Weill
concert at The John Anson Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Anne
returned to The John Anson Ford Amphitheater in 2002 to be the vocalist
in Blue Skies, a collaboration with her husband and jazz
great Russell Ferrante.
2006 brings the release of her third CD, Weill, a collection
of fifteen songs from the composer's German and American songbooks,
the majority of which was recorded live with WDR's Big Band in Cologne's
Philharmonic Hall. Regular appearances have included The Mabel Mercer
Cabaret Conventions on both coasts, LA's Gardenia, Cinegrill, Jazz
Bakery, Boston Court Theatre and Alex Theatre, as well as Sculler's
in Boston, San Francisco's Plush Room, and Blues Alley in Washington
DC. Anne performs her Kurt Weill tribute regularly at the prestigious
Neue Galerie's Cafe Sabarsky in New York City.
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