ANNA VIVETTE: Sorceress of Song

 

“I like to think of singing to others as a form of induction.” ~ Anna Vivette

 

The magnificence of Anna Vivette’s artistry begins with an induction. A single note will resonate from the depths of her being to caress your soul. A gesture will mesmerize you as she performs an unexpected aria in the middle of a crowded room. Her presence will lure you into a sense of reality that is beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed possible.

 

Anna’s immense power for creative performance and improvisation was cultivated during her earlier years. Home schooled and forbidden to listen to any other music besides classical masterpieces, Anna developed a true appreciation for a world of rich compositions written by the likes of Mozart and Beethoven. Rock music was absolutely verboten, as its impurity was sure to taint her impressionable palate for high art.

 

When she was finally allowed to attend public school at the age of ten, Anna was thrown into a time warp that would rip her from her antiquated eighteenth century world and plunge her into the trenches of nineties pop culture. So foreign were these new sights and sounds to Anna that she quickly became the target for excessive bullying and harassment. Unforgiving classmates would cruelly pick on Anna for her eccentric ways.

 

Faced with pressures at school, Anna found relief and freedom in her pursuit of music and art. As a young violinist, Anna began to improvise and collaborate with the newly discovered sounds of pop and electronic music. Seeing her voice as a natural extension of her violin, Anna was soon entering abandoned buildings, quiet churches, and nature’s sanctuary to playfully cast her sounds throughout the acoustic caverns of space. At this same time, Anna was beginning to feed her hungry artist child with social cues from pop icons like U2, William Orbit, and Enigma, while famous supermodels like Kate Moss were defining a whole new realm of attractiveness and seduction in her sentient mind.

 

Armed with the power of her own artistic independence, Anna joined the lyric opera in Chicago as an actress. There she discovered the magic of the classical world with voices that held a kind of sorcery that she yearned to harness for her own creative pleasure. Working alongside mega talents such as Renee Flemming, Samual Ramey, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Bryn Terfel intimidated the young teenager, but Anna couldn’t help but be drawn to the electricity and pulse of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Gounod’s Faust. To her demise, Anna realized she could not yet harness the powerful voice that swelled within her own body, so she retreated to the familiar territory of painting to regain confidence in her competency as an artist.

 

Anna’s success in the visual art community landed her pieces in impressive permanent collections, including the Dodge Theater and the private collection of Billie Jo and Judd Herberger. Anna also collaborated with interior designer Janis Leonard to develop the SMoCA Lounge, a celebrated installation of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Currently, she continues to create mixed media monotypes, pencil drawings, and acrylic & oil paintings at the Rezvani Workshop and Studios with her fiancé, master printmaker and artist Shahrokh Rezvani.
 

Despite her emerging success within the artscape, Anna never forgot the voice of her creative spirit. Several years after being disconnected from her music, Anna was unexpectedly reigned into singing by total accident. A night out with friends brought Anna into conversation with revered opera singer and coach, Ruth Dubinbaum. After several moments of insignificant chatter, Ms. Dubinbaum fiercely proclaimed, “Anna! You will come to my house and take voice lessons. You have a nice speaking voice.” Somewhat confused, a little irritated, and quite reluctant, Anna agreed. But something inside of her spirit caught on fire during those first lessons. Anna surrendered herself completely to a life as a coloratura soprano, and her career as a vocal performer took flight.

 

Since studying with Ms. Dubinbaum, Anna has earned numerous opportunities to share her gift of vocal performance with acclaimed artists such as architect Paolo Soleri, for whom she performed at the inauguration of the Soleri Bridge in Scottsdale, Arizona. In November 2008, Anna performed for internationally renowned artist Dale Chihuly and his wife Lesley Chihuly for his major exhibition at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Visionary artist Ulrike Arnold introduced Anna to the breathtaking grandeur of Amangiri, where she’d later perform for illustrious guests of the desert cocoon such as French actress Isabelle Huppert and Viktor Horsting of the Viktor and Rolf Fashion house. Anna has also collaborated on non-classical projects with platinum songwriter Gardner Cole and Wild Whirled Music/Fervor Records. Her full-length release entitled Coloratura is co-written by Andy Gerold (touring bassist for Marilyn Manson) and accomplished composer/songwriter Jeff Freundlich. Unleashing the full potential of her immense talent for improvisation and light, agile runs, the collaborative album is a thrilling juxtaposition of classical vocals, trip-hop, and electronica.

 

The next phase for Anna’s artistry is to fuse together the entire culmination of her creative expression – visually, vocally, and experientially. Her dreams and ambition take her across oceans and to the deepest chambers of the earth, to release her voice into the most unexpected, yet ultimately pristine spaces the world has to offer. Her artistry has ripened at the perfect moment in history for all to appreciate and enjoy. The unique breadth of her music becomes a sacred place where two diverging worlds – the natural and the mechanical – come crashing together to create the perfect storm of fine beauty and exquisite acoustic harmony. A storm so bold and so brilliant, only the most gifted among us can wield its power. The time has come to induce your senses with the sights and sounds of Anna Vivette.

 

“Music is the most holy of experiences for me. It intoxicates my imagination unlike anything I've ever been intrigued by. Forever spellbound.”  ~ Anna Vivette

 

Written by Tesz Millan

Professional singer and writer for AZ Culture