Annie Moses Band

The family includes: Bill Wolaver (composer/arranger/pianist) and his wife, Robin (vocalist/lyricist/composer) along with their children: Annie (lead vocals, violin), Alex (lead vocals, viola), Benjamin (cello), Camille (harp, keyboard, vocals), Gretchen (violin, mandolin, guitar, vocals) and Jeremiah (guitar, bass). Bill and Robin met as music students at Oklahoma City University. He was a classical pianist and jazz lover, while she was a vocal performance major raised on mountain music played back home in the Kiamichi Mountains of Oklahoma. Their tastes merged in writing popular music, and after their marriage they began their journey in the music industry. On the heels of their first hit song, the Wolavers moved to Nashville where they began to raise their family. Robin, especially, was convinced that learning to play music was fundamental to the learning experience. “If I ruled the world,” she insists, “all children would start their education with music, because music enhances and prepares the brain for every other educational endeavor.” So when each child was three or four years old, the lessons began.

Music proved to be more than an educational jump-start for the siblings. Each showed exceptional ability and dedication, and by 1994 Bill was writing arrangements for the earliest incarnation of the group, featuring the three eldest children. Their studies took them from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music to the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Ultimately, the Wolavers moved from Nashville to the New York area when Annie, Alex, and Benjamin were admitted simultaneously to the Juilliard School’s Pre-college Program. Annie became concert-mistress of the Juilliard Pre-college Orchestra while Alex quickly found similar distinction as principal of the Juilliard Pre-college Symphony. He was also hand picked to play in a string quartet coached by the legendary Itzhak Perlman. Together, the siblings performed in settings ranging from Lincoln Center to dinner theaters and churches. Even at that stage, they felt challenged to push beyond classical conventions, and thus the Annie Moses Band was born.