Dana Anex studied viola with Helen Callus at the University of California Santa Barbara and Northwestern University, where she received her Bachelor of Music in viola performance from Northwestern in 2019. While studying at UC Santa Barbara and Northwestern, she engaged with a variety of musical genres outside of standard classical repertoire, performing with Baroque, Middle Eastern, and Contemporary music ensembles. Outside of performance, she studies music theory and music cognition. Both disciplines strongly influence her viola and violin teaching.

She began working as a freelance musician and teacher in high school and on a volunteer basis, taught and organized group classes for student musicians in public school. She currently teaches individual and group classes in violin and viola in Chicago at Andersonville String Academy and Chicago School of Musical Arts in addition to private students.

Her teaching style emphasizes the social role of musical performance among amateur and professional musicians. She believes that fundamental technical abilities on the instrument and an understanding of music theory and music history provide the students with the skills and knowledge needed to confidently perform music with others in a social setting, including free improvisation.

She resides in Hyde Park in Chicago, studying music in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities at The University of Chicago. She is currently working on arrangements of symphonic and chamber music works for ensembles of flexible instrumentation intended for casual settings, expanding the possibilities of available repertoire for uncommon string ensemble types.