Wanda and Ann: Live Music Thursday Feb 20, 2025 6p-8p at La Divina

Enjoy live local singer songwriters with select wines, ice cold beer, delicious dining and gelato!

Ann Vidrine has been a professional singer-musician since 1989. Her journey has garnered an impressive list performances and accolades, but like many other successful artists, Ann suddenly lost her Cajun fiddling career during the COVID-19 pandemic. "My bookings calendar went blank during lockdown in March of 2020. It was such a life altering shock to suddenly be unemployed, without warning, and without any place allowing performances in the foreseeable future,” she recalls. Once again, music came to the rescue, and in 2023, Ann began writing original songs. Her works, performed on keyboard and various stringed instruments, are based on her life experiences, exploring the many facets that life entails. Today, Ann is enjoying her new path as a songwriter-musician, appearing live in concert and via zoom, including the Hudson Valley Folk Guild in New York.”

Wanda Kuo stumbled into songwriting accidentally. Despite spending her entire childhood steeped in world-class choral music, studying piano performance professionally, and sheepishly trying her hand at “cool instruments” as an adult, she never thought about writing her own music. She firmly believed that she could spend her entire life trying and not be half as talented as Fiona Apple as a teenager, so why bother. But when her personal life took an unexpected turn and she suddenly found herself alone with nothing but time and some long-abandoned instruments on her hands, notes and lyrics began pouring down in all directions. She had no choice but to frantically grab some buckets, musically speaking. Her songs are raw, moody, and deeply personal, and she apologizes for making you feel devastated. She doesn’t mean to. She just doesn’t know how else to be.

Host or Publisher La Divina Italian Cafe