The #8 reason to attend A Luminous New Year's Eve is a two-for-one entry: a chance to collaborate with pianist Cheryl Emery-Karapita, and to hear her play beautiful music for solo piano by Estonian composer Urmas Sisask!
About Cheryl
Cheryl Emery-Karapita
Canadian Pianist Cheryl Emery-Karapita is based in Lethbridge and specializes in the field of song in recital with Canada’s emerging vocal talent. After completing an M.Mus in Vocal Operatic Coaching at McGill with Michael McMahon, Cheryl moved to Europe to pursue a Post-Graduate degree in Concert Accompanying with Julius Drake at the Kunst Universität in Graz, Austria. In addition to studies in Graz, Cheryl spent two summers in Baden-bei-Wien working with Helmut Deutsch, Roger Vignoles, Rudolph Jansen and Wolfram Rieger at the Franz-Schubert-Institut.
Cheryl’s B.Mus in solo performance was completed at the University of Calgary with Marilyn Engle.
In addition to current recital and recording projects, Cheryl is busy with students at the University of Lethbridge and the CASA Art Centre in Lethbridge. She enjoys collaborating with Luminous Voices. She first collaborated with the ensemble in 2013 when she played the Gloria by Timothy Corlis. For this concert, Cheryl will perform excerpts of the Starry Sky Cycle composed by Urmas Sisask.
About Urmas Sisask and his Starry Sky Cycle
Urmas Sisask
Urmas Sisask (b. 1960) is an Estonian composer. While much of what he composes is sacred, he is also greatly inspired by astronomy. Based on the trajectories of the planets in the solar system, he created the "planetal scale", a mode consisting of the pitches C#, D, F#, G#, and A. He later discovered that his 'planetal scale' was exactly the same as the Japanese pentatonic scale.
The Starry Sky Cycle contains 29 movements; each movement takes roughly three minutes to perform, and can be performed in any order. Cheryl will perform the movements 'Aquarius', 'Serpens' and 'Lyre'.
For a small taste of the cycle, here is pianist Tatiana Smelova performing the movement 'Aries' from the Starry Sky Cycle. For you constellation and zodiac fans, the sign of Aries is represented by the ram, and marks the beginning of something energetic and sometimes turbulent. Listen to how Smelova captures those feelings in her performance of 'Aries'.