Touring/Arranging/Music Direction

J’Anna has toured with numerous artists including Shirley Bassie, Pam Tillis, Michael Crawford, John Tesh and Rod Stewart. In the recent world tour with Rod Stewart she coordinated, rehearsed and led local string groups hired for the shows in each city throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, the UK and Europe. In June 2002, she worked with Michael Kamin coordinating and leading the string group for Rod Stewart’s appearance on the BBC broadcast of the Party at the Palace for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace.

Arranging

While touring with Rod Stewart she has created, maintained and transcribed the string arrangements used for the 2001-2002 world tour and also his TV appearances. She also has written string arrangements for The Black Watch recordings and was the string arranger for Skypark’s “Overbluecity” (see discography).

J’Anna follows George Martin’s paradigm of arranging strings for pop and rock music. The purest, most perfect example being Eleanor Rigby where the strings both complement, support or propel the song forward, creating a substantial, but not overwhelming texture for the vocal to rest upon.

J’Anna’s arranging is also influenced by more recent artist’s use of strings, especially in dance, eletronica, ambient and atmospheric music. Some of J'Anna’s favorite examples of how strings can add an interesting and organic texture to cutting-edge music can be seen in the recordings of Groove Armada, Morcheeba, Bjork, Beck and the Icelandic band, Sigur Ros.