Born in Buffalo, New York, Anita King earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Iowa where she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance and Pedagogy in 1981. She is currently Professor of Music Emerita at Willamette University.
A winner of several piano competitions, King has appeared as piano soloist with numerous orchestras. Moreover, King performs frequently as soloist and chamber musician. King was a member of Trio Northwest in residence at Willamette University from 1986-1997. As winners of the U.S. Information Agency “Artistic Ambassador” auditions, the Trio toured South America, performing 23 concerts and presenting master classes in 5 countries.
King joined the faculty of Willamette University in 1981 and has taught piano, accompanying, chamber music, advanced music analysis courses, and, more recently, the Alexander Technique. She has also participated in interdisciplinary teaching that reflects her interest in the relationships between the arts. In addition to her teaching duties, King served as artistic director of the Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series at Willamette University from 1983-2015.
Since 1997, King has been immersed in the field of kinesthetic re-education as it relates to musicians’ health. King began studying with Barbara Conable in the spring of 1998 and became a certified Andover Educator in the fall of 2000. She has been a certified teaching member of Alexander Technique International since 2003. King created a college course for musicians (offered every year at Willamette University) on Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique. She has been a frequent presenter of workshops for musicians throughout the U.S. Her groundbreaking presentation, “Understanding Music’s Multiple Levels: Creating the Foundation for Interpretation and Movement” intimately connects her research into musicians’ movement with her Schenkarian approach to understanding musical structure.
She has given this presentation and related workshops at the Two-Piano Institute of the Ernest Bloch Festival, the Oberlin College-Conservatory of Music, Akron University, the Universities of New Hampshire and Las
Vegas, the Hawaii International Conference for Arts and Humanities, Andover Educators International Conference, Alexander Technique International Annual General Meeting, the Berklee College of Music
Performance Wellness Institute, for music teachers’ organizations throughout the northwest and most recently for musicians and Alexander Technique teachers in Geneva, Switzerland and Burgundy, France.
Spoken language: English