Anne Militello started her concert lighting career in San Francisco in the 70s as a roadie for major acts. Having been told point blank that she could never advance to lighting designer because of her sex, she began working at the Magic Theater where she started her ongoing collaborative relationship with playwright Sam Shepard. There she cut her teeth as a theater designer and moved to New York.
While her theater career moved from the off-off Broadway to the Broadway stage, she continued to light bands in music club in the 80s at places like Danceteria, CBGB and the Mudd Club to name a few.
Years later, with the music business emerging from the dark ages of sexism, she resumed her concert career, this time as a designer and has lit such acts as Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Robert Plant, Leonard Cohen and more.
She is president of Vortex Lighting in Los Angeles and is the head of the graduate lighting department at the California Institute of Arts. She has received numerous awards including Lighting Designer of the Year, an Obie Award, the Waterbury Award, several Joseph Jefferson Awards and an American Theater Wing nomination.
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