Ani was born on the edge of the Carribbean Sea in the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia to an American mother and Colombian father. When she was still a young child, her family moved to Miami, Florida, one of the most multi-cultural cites in the U.S.
She was a finalist and first runner up on Ed McMahon's Star Search and sang professionally for over 20 years with her popular South Florida band, Pangea. She also sang for Brazilian artist Sergio Mendes on his 1989 album "Arara" and numerous other bands as a backup singer, including her friend Gloria Estefan and The Rolling Stones.
From her incredible work in the music business, she can sing in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Italian! All of these languages are included in her repertoire with Pair of Three.
Ani moved to Colorado in 2003, and addition to singing, began oil painting and capturing the beauty of Colorado with her photography. In addition to oils, she has included pastels for the richness and bold colors she can achieve with both media. From singing to painting and photography, Ani is an multi-talented, accomplished artist!
Gaynor spent her youth with a transistor radio attached to her ear, listening and learning all the am radio hits of the 60’s and 70’s. Her earliest influences included The Beatles, Judy Collins, Joan Baez and ultimately, Joni Mitchell.
As folk music cleared the way for the rock era, she discovered rock was a great outlet for singing along and ‘belting out’ high notes. Janis Joplin and Linda Ronstadt became new female influences for vocal challenges.
In school, she majored in Communications with a secondary major in music. After music studies in college, she joined several rock bands as lead vocalist and guitar backup, while working in corporate television in Silicon Valley.
Today, she is pleased to join Ani and Rick, contributing guitar, ukulele and backup vocals to the group.
Gaynor is an artist who works in oil, graphite and charcoal and paints a variety of subjects which she exhibits within the community.
Rick discovered the magic of music as a teenager with his neighbor Jack Graham. After that, he got the bug, found that writing songs came to him, and he and Jack formed a neighborhood rock band.
Later he pursued music composition at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, got a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Music there and moved to Los Angeles. There, he studied at the School of Hard Knocks, until he enrolled in the Master’s/Doctorate program in music at the University of Colorado. He got his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition/Theory in 2001 writing original music ranging from orchestral and concerto to choir and chamber works. Additionally, he focused on microtonal tuning systems, writing an 80-page dissertation project on a movement for “Delusion of the Fury” by Harry Patch.
Rick joined Ani and Gaynor, already a duet, in 2014 to augment their sound with both guitar and mandolin, and backup vocals.