ANNA STAFFORD

L.A. BASED VIOLIN VIRTUOSO SOARS AND GROOVES HEAVILY WITH A FASCINATING CLASSICAL ROCK HYBRID VIBE ON HER CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED DEBUT ‘STRING MUSIC'

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Busy Composer, Producer and Performer Has Played Live Throughout Europe, Entertained At The Academy Awards' Governor's Ball And Emmy Awards Party and Backed Pop Icons Andrea Bocelli, Mary J. Blige and Kelly Clarkson on TV

            Have strings, will travel—and rock! Since hopping over to L.A. after getting her Master's in composition from Arizona State in 2002, violin virtuoso Anna Stafford been the go-to girl for everyone who needs an extra cool kick to their classical music.

            As a solo act or working with the string quartet she launched soon after getting to town, she's enjoyed a crazy whirlwind of non-stop multi-genre gigs: performing at the recent Emmy Awards Party, the Governor's Ball after The Oscars, the JC Penney Jam and the Grammy Awards; playing on TV behind pop superstars LeAnn Rimes , Andrea Bocelli , 3 Doors Down , Mary J. Blige and Kelly Clarkson (“The Tonight Show,” “The Early Show,” “Good Morning America”); performing in Europe and the Middle East—including a recent tour of churches in Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest; and playing onstage with Thrice , 30 Seconds To Mars , Jack's Mannequin , MASS Ensemble and the legendary Steve & Eydie . She's also done arrangements for the documentary “Alexander The Great” and the short film “Well Sooted.”

But what Stafford really wants to do is rock—which she does with abandon on her explosive, critically acclaimed solo debut CD String Music, which features eleven eclectic originals (with intriguing, sometimes off the wall titles like “Crushed Berries,” “Green Walls” and “Chromosomes”) composed and arranged by Stafford and produced by her and her cellist husband John Krovoza at their Stringvision Studios in Pasadena.

A classically trained musician who recorded a symphonic work for the Tacoma Youth Symphony but also loved Pearl Jam, Metallica and Live, the Gig Harbor, Washington native's goal was to create a hybrid style that was idiomatic to a string quartet but in keeping with the theme of classical/rock crossover.

Leading up to String Music, she produced and/or played on numerous string quartet rock tribute albums for Vitamin Records, which re-imagined the music of Thrice , Lacuna Coil , INXS , and the Deftones ; her most recent Vitamin projects include sets of the music of Michael Buble , Jimmy Eats World and Red Hot Chili Peppers .

She and Krovoza, both members of the Local 47 union in Los Angeles, began developing a string quartet rock tribute album when they realized that rock tunes could be arranged for string quartet. Once they completed their home studio, Stafford had more time to spend there writing material and she began to think it would be more interesting to do a recording of all original songs.

“I think writing is one of the best things you can do as a performer,” says Stafford , who is making sheet music of each song available via her own website (www.annastafford.com) and www.lulu.com). “It really develops your own style and uniqueness as an artist. When I write songs, I try to make them as universal as possible without worrying about the genre. I wanted to create songs that had a vernacular dialect as opposed to being straight classical music. I could speak instrumentally to create new and refreshing pieces that everyone could relate to in some way. While the songs are played with classical instrumentation, they have a rock and roll feel to them. Classical music has become very specialized and the average person is finding it harder to embrace it. So I want to bring classical music back to the mainstream.”

While maintaining a constant work flow of gigs playing other people's music, Stafford is slowly but surely finding opportunities to play the songs from String Music—and her next project, which she says will be slightly more “serious” in tone—in live settings. Her quartet did a show for Ferrari a few months ago in Pebble Beach, and she's working with instrument manufacturer Yamaha—one of her endorsers, along with Pirastro and Schertler--on a series of concerts for educators featuring String Music and the latest Yamaha four and five string models.

Both live and on String Music, Stafford performs on a 2006 David T. VanZandt violin (whose style is based on the legendary work of the Italian Guarneri family in the 17 th and 18 th centuries), an 1813 Wilkenson and Perry Irish Fiddle. For rock gigs, she performs on a Yamaha Electric 5-string EV205 with a POD Line 6 pedal board.

“There's always a risk involved when you try to forge a new path and invent something of your own style,” she says. “But from the time I took my first violin lesson at age nine, I was trying to integrate my love for rock into the classical. I know that classical crossover was a big thing in rock music years ago, so it's not like it's a completely new concept, but in a way it's still experimental. I feel it's always worth taking the chance because it's the only way I have to truly define myself. It's really exciting hearing the way it's turned out and getting such positive responses.”

            While International Musician ran a feature on Stafford and String Music in June, the magazine Teen Strings (a division of Strings Magazine) is going to publish a piece on her percussive, whimsical tune “Wilson Said”—including technical breakdowns of her playing and pieces of sheet music.

Although she prefers that listeners create their own stories and interpretations of her instrumental music, the violinist is a very responsive composer, writing emotionally based on seemingly insignificant moments in her life. She wrote the dreamy, then dramatic and soaring “The Window” after Krovoza put in a new window in their home and she could suddenly see the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains . “Fourteen Feet,” in contrast, is an angry piece about getting a parking ticket because she wasn't the required 15 feet from a fire hydrant; this track features Krovoza striking a pen across his cello to signify a lighted match or a drawn sword.

“I had a writing teacher in high school who told me that good writing is about expressing slices of your life, and I take that to heart,” says Stafford . “I really feel privileged to have worked with so many wonderful artists and am excited now about having the opportunity to write and perform my own music. I really enjoy the creative, improvisatory aspect of it, having the chance to share with people something fresh that they haven't heard before. I love when people come up and have a special emotional response to a piece I play. That ability to communicate with the audience is one of the greatest gifts a musician can have.”