Lockwood studied composition and completed a Bachelor of Music with honours from the University of Canterbury.^[2] Her composition studies continued with Peter Racine Fricker at the Royal College of Music from 1961 to 1963; with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 1963 to 1964; and at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. She also studied in the Netherlands. Lockwood settled in London in 1964.^[3]

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lockwood performed and composed around Europe. Her compositions featured non-conventional instruments such as glass tubing used in The Glass Concert (1967). This was published in Source: Music of the Avant Garde then recorded and released by Tangent Records.^[3] Her series Piano Transplants utilized burning, drowning, or planting pianos in locations across the United Kingdom and United States.^[4] In the 1970s, Lockwood began to compose music that could be classified as performance art pieces, as the essence of the compositional ideas made the audience and environment agents in one piece. She collaborated with various choreographers, sound poets, and visual artists.^[4]

In 1973, Lockwood relocated to New York City after being offered a faculty role at Hunter College. She worked with environmental sounds, capturing them and building developed compositions around an environmental inspiration, as in A Sound Map of the Hudson River (1982)^[5] and World Rhythms (1975). She also built on the archetypes and conversations with significant people, as in Conversations with the Ancestors (1979), composed on conversations with four women in their 80s; and Delta Run (1982) based on a conversation with sculptor Walter Wincha. Three Short Stories and Apotheosis (1985) used what Lockwood named the Soundball, which was a foam-covered ball made of six small speakers and a radio receiver. The impetus for this unusual piece of equipment was to "put sound into the hands of the dancers."^[6] She also works with the sounds of water.^[7]

In the 1990s, her pieces were written for acoustic-electric instruments and incorporated multi-media and indigenous instruments. Thousand Year Dreaming (1991) used four didgeridoos and blends images of the Lascaux Cave as part of the performance.^[8] In 2002, she began working on A Sound Map of the Danube River, which gathered sounds recorded from a variety of sites on the surface of, within, and around the river.

Lockwood's work has been presented at festivals around the world. Her piece Piano Burning has been replicated multiple times, including as the closing track of the 2019 album There Existed An Addiction To Blood by the experimental hip-hop group clipping. She has received the Henry Cowell Award (2007)^[9] and was featured in the short documentary Annea Lockwood / a Film About Listening (2021) and live documentary 32 Sounds (2022), both directed by Sam Green.^[10][11] Her recordings are currently distributed by Lovely, XI, ?What Next?/OO Discs, Rattle Records (NZ), Harmonia Mundi, Earth Ear, CRI, and Finnadar/Atlantic.

Lockwood is an emeritus professor at Vassar College, where she has worked since 1982. Former students include Jonathan Elliott.^[12]

• 1970: The Glass World of Anna Lockwood
• 1977: Tiger Balm Opus One Records 70
• 1977: Women in Electronic Music: New Music for Electronic & Recorded Media
• 1989: A Sound Map of the Hudson River, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 2081
• 1990: Nautilus on The Aerial: Issue #2
• 1991: Night and Fog on Full Spectrum Voice, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 3021; features Thomas Buckner, baritone
• 1991: Red Mesa Opus One Records 00152; features Loretta Goldberg, keyboards
• 1993: Thousand Year Dreaming, Nonsequitur/?What Next? WN 0010 & O.O. Discs 0041
• 1994: The Angle of Repose (on Sign of the Times), Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 3022; features Thomas Buckner, baritone
• 1994: Sign Of The Times
• 1996: Ear-Walking Woman
• 1997: The Glass World, Nonsequitur/?What Next? WN 0021 & O.O. Discs
• 1998: World Rhythms (on Sinopah), Experimental Intermedia XI 118; includes Ruth Anderson's I Come Out of Your Sleep
• 1999: Breaking the Surface, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 2082
• 2003: 60x60, Capstone Records CPS-8744
• 2007: Thousand Year Dreaming/Floating World, Pogus 21045–2

• 1995, May 23: MUSIC REVIEW; Bang on a Can Uptown Cultivates Crossover by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
• 1989, December 10: Review/Music; Electronic Components In Work by 3 Composers by John Rockwell, The New York Times
• 1993, April 20: Classical Music in Review by Bernard Holland, The New York Times
• 2000, January 9: It's Sound, It's Art, and Some Call It Music by Kyle Gann, The New York Times
• 2000, July 9: MUSIC; Electronic Music, Always Current by Kyle Gann, The New York Times
• 2001, January 18: Art From a River's Past (and Its Present) by Dinitia Smith, The New York Times
• 2003, March 9: ENVIRONMENT; Inside, An Echo Of a River by James Gorman, The New York Times
• 2004, October 16: MUSIC REVIEW | SOUNDS LIKE NOW, A 'Bring Your Own Improvisation' Party by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
• 2019, November 8: MUSIC; Burning Pianos and Whispering Rivers: A Composer’s Journey by Kerry O'Brien, The New York Times
• 2023, May 12: Ruth Anderson / Annea Lockwood: Tête-à-tête album review by James Minsoo Kim, Pitchfork

• Otherminds.org
• Lovely Music Artist: Annea Lockwood
• I Resound Press
• Annea Lockwood/A Film About Listening