Instrumental pianist Anne Trenning titled her third recording Watching For Rain, as a metaphor indicating a time of hopeful anticipation. “As our world continues to face the challenges of economy, war and the environment, we find ourselves looking toward new opportunities, for rain to come and refresh the earth, and for growth and positive change to occur.” Trenning strongly believes in the ability of music to communicate and promote the ideas of peace, love, and friendship. The music on her second album, ALL ONE WORLD, reflects her hopes and concerns for all civilizations around the globe. Trenning lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, but grew up in Barrington, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), where she began her musical instruction taking organ lessons at the age of seven. Earliest musical memories from this time include “learning sheet music from the Big Band era, with a lot of bossa nova and fox trot songs thrown in.” When she was 12-years-old piano became her primary focus and she studied through high school with the talented Helen Velleuer. Church and choir also shaped her earliest musical memories. Her father encouraged practicing and a love of four-part harmony by paying her a dollar for every hymn she learned to play from a Presbyterian hymnal passed down from her grandmother. “My entrepreneurial spirit insured that I learned to play every hymn in that worn and well-loved collection.”
