Anna grew up in Trieste, Italy, where she received a diploma as a primary school teacher, and before choosing singing as the center of her existance, she studied Psychology for two years; in the meantime she took an impressive variety of different jobs: she’s been a private teacher, a model, a cloak room attendant, a telephone operator, a waitress, a book seller,a cleaner, a music manager, a carpenter (as she puts it “…I guess I wanted to be Bohumil Hrabal”)
She started studying Jazz Singing with Bob Stoloff in 1989 at the Berklee College Summer Clinics in Perugia – Italy, where she was offered a scholarship and received a special Artistic Mention. The same year she enrolled at the Art University for Music and Performing Arts of Graz – Austria, where she studied with Jazz Greats Jay Clayton, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey and Sheila Jordan. She attended Reggie Workman’s masterclasses in Croatia and studied at the Barry Harris Workshop during her numerous stays in New York. From 1999 to 2008 she’s been the vocalist of Europe leading international orchestra, the Vienna Art Orchestra. She toured extensively with the VAO, appearing on jazz festivals worldwide, and recorded on 12 of the band’s CD.
Collaborations include extraordinary musicians such as Andy Bey, Pete Bernstein, Franco Vallisneri, Fritz Pauer, John Di Martino, Bojan Zulfikarpasic, Julien Lourau, Francesco Bearzatti, Bumi Fian, Andy Scherrer, Marc Buronfosse, Till Martin, Claus Raible,Thomas Stabenow, Paulo Cardoso, Henning Siewert, Alegre Corrèa, Steve Kirby, Wolfgang Puschnig, Florian Bramboeck, Hank Gradischnig, Karl Sayer, Willi Resetarits, Oliver Kent to name a few.
Theater and Festival performances include Umbria Jazz, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Havanna, Berlin, Guimares, Paris, Freiburg, Milano, Varna, Madrid, Moskaw, Essen, Kiev, Vilnius, Vienna, Moers, Le Mans, Dresden, Nord Sea JazzFestival, Joragua do Sul, Joinville, Hamburg, Beijing, Oporto, Amsterdam, Angouleme, Zaragozza, Belfast, Zagreb, Lugano, Brugge, Orleans, Essen, Salamanca, Luzern, Salzsburg, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, Bolzano, Mantova, Nevers, Red Sea Jazz Festival, JVC festival, Time in Jazz, Barcelona, London, Luxenburg, Auxerre, San Sebastian, Graz, Gdynia, Prag, Zurich, Couches, Granada, Sevilla, Junas, Sarajevo, Sibiu, Bern, Cannes, Bergen, Lisboa.
In 2008 she started her International Quartet which features Claus Raible (DE) on piano, Giorgos Antoniou (GR) on bass, and Steve Brown(UK) on drums. Their first CD “Unless there’s love” was released in 2012 and receiver a nomination for the German Critic Prize, ranking number 2, and the second album Coming back Home won the award in 2015. The band has been touring in Europe’s festivals and clubs since then.
Her lastest project “Freefall” is an adventurosus duo recording that features again Claus Raible on piano/arrangements
From 2000 to 2002 she’s been teching jazz repertoire and body work at the Bruckner Konservatorium Linz-Austria and since then she’s been teaching jazz vocals and stage presence masterclassess in various workshops, conservatories and colleges (Vienna, Trieste, Ulan Bator, Beograd, Innsbruck) and collaborated with various educational institutions (Jeunesss Musicales Croatia, Art Culture France, Goethe Instute)
She had a brief carreer as a bar tender at the Billie’s Bar at the first Porgy and Bess Jazz and Music club in Vienna, and a little longer carreer as a film music composer, writing six soundtracks (tv and cinema) for the Austrian director Xaver Schwarzenberger.
As a lyricist she’s been writing for different bands and projects, including the Vienna Art Orchestra, in 2013 she started the blog “Diaries of a nomadic Jazz singer” and since 2018 she’s a creative writer for Wall Street International Magazine.
A cosmopolite world citizen who fell in madly in love with the sea at a very young age, since 2003 Anna spends all of her months of June on a Greek Island and lives between Vienna-Trieste-Munich and Belgrade and when Winter comes around she tends to spread her wings and migrate to Asia, -mostly in India- where she’s been active in various social projects and worked with under-proviledged children.
She practice yoga and Vipassana Meditation, loves flowers, white wine and books and doesn’t eat meat.