By DeAnn Rossetti

Local songstress Annie Rapid will play her music and sing her own songs at the Penn Cove Mussel Festival March 5 and 6 in Coupeville, Wash., on Whidbey Island.

Born in Germany to diplomat parents, Rapid originally earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s from the Architectural Association in England.

“My vision of the ideal job was to work with the United Nations in developing countries on their housing problem,” Rapid said. “What I ended up doing was going to L.A. and working on high-end celebrity homes, which was the opposite of what I’d planned to do.”

Though Rapid wrote music and played guitar as a teenager, she’d never considered it as a career. “But I was not happy in architecture,” she said. “I knew in my gut that if I was doing what I wanted to be doing, I’d be a musician.”

Rapid spent a year revamping her guitar skills and learning to play the sophisticated songs she’d written. She moved to New York City to develop her career, and then moved back to L.A. in 1996 because she wanted to start touring on the college circuit. She recorded her first album, “Roses and Ash,” in 1998. Her second album, “Flood,” was released in 2001.

Rapid lived on Whidbey Island for a year. After discovering that touring the country was more cost-effective from here, she moved to Mercer Island in January.

“I played the Mercer Island Summer Celebration last summer, and felt like Mercer Island was a nice compromise, in that you get nature and quiet, yet it’s also close to everything,” she said. “It’s not too suburban, and the rents are affordable compared to LA.”

Rapid has been playing the “festival and fairs” circuit for years, and was delighted to be contacted by the Penn Cove Mussel Festival. “I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “It will be great fun to go back to Whidbey Island.”

For more information on the 19th Penn Cove Mussel Festival, go to www.penncovemusselfestival.com . Annie Rapid’s Web site is www.annierapid.com

Fundraising firefighters

A team of Mercer Island firefighters will compete this weekend in the 14th annual Scott Firefigher Stairclimb, which benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

On Sunday, more than 900 dedicated (crazy?) firefighters will don full firefighting gear and race to the top of the Bank of America Tower in Seattle — all 69 flights, 1,311 steps and 788 feet of it.

Last year, Mercer Island’s team took first place. Check back for results on how this year’s competition pans out.

Team members spent last Sunday at the north-end QFC, climbing a stairmaster in full gear and collecting donations for the cause.

Want to contribute? Send checks made payable to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to the Mercer Island Firefighters at P.O. Box 1114, Mercer Island, WA, 98040.

Have an item for Around the Island? Contact DeAnn Rossetti at 232-1215 or e-mail her at deann.rossetti@mi-reporter.com