Anna Atkinson is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, performer and music educator. Originally from Windsor, Ontario, she studied the viola at the University of Victoria before spending nine years immersed in Toronto’s creative music and theatre communities. She now lives in Montreal. 

Anna performs her own music under the project name Linaire. The project’s self-titled debut album was released in October 2020. Using uncluttered electronic beats, ethereal synths, incandescent strings and poetically lucid lyrics, Linaire explores complex emotions, anxiety, ancestry and embodiment. Anna also has two albums released under her own name: Sky Stacked Full (2016) and Mooniture (2011). 

​Anna has contributed both as creator and performer to numerous projects across music, theatre, film and dance. She played in the Victoria-based duo Blue Richard and the Apricots and Toronto bands Grannis Bea and Words Around the Waist. She has composed music for productions at Tangente, The Centaur and Toronto Fringe and has performed in productions at The Theatre Centre, Soulpepper and The Stratford Festival. In 2022 she she was musical director, co-creator and performer in Joe Jack et John’s new play Les waitress sont tristes.

​​Of special interest to Anna is the connection between music, performance and the body. Her extensive experience with physical practices ranging from Olympic weightlifting and kettlebell to Feldenkrais and yoga, research on the nervous system, and her own experience with anxiety and disembodiment are among the complex and thoughtful threads she weaves throughout her artistic practice, writing and teaching.