Rayleigh-Benard convection is investigated in rotating annular cavities ă at a moderate dimensionless rotation rate Omega = 60. The onset of ă convection is in the form of azimuthal traveling waves that set in at ă the sidewalls and at values of the Rayleigh number significantly below ă the value of the onset of convection in an infinitely extended layer. ă The present study addresses the effects of curvature and confinement on ă the onset of sidewall convection by using three-dimensional spectral ă solutions of the Oberbeck-Boussinesq equations. Such solutions ă demonstrate that the curvature of the outer boundary promotes the onset ă of the wall mode, while the opposite curvature of the inner boundary ă tends to delay the onset of the wall mode. An inner sidewall with a ă radius as low as one tenth of its height is sufficient, however, to ă support the onset of a sidewall mode. When radial confinement is ă increased the two independent traveling waves interact and eventually ă merge to form a nearly steady pattern of convection.