“Composing for me is a journey to inner and fascinating worlds, that I can only access and experience through the elements of music – its harmonies, melodies, rhythms and timbres, but which are often inspired by a line of poetry, a painting, a fleeting memory or the natural world. I remain in awe of the wonder of music and its ability to deeply touch and heal the human spirit.”
Dace Aperāne
Composer
“Composing for me is a journey to inner and fascinating worlds, that I can only access and experience through the elements of music – its harmonies, melodies, rhythms and timbres, but which are often inspired by a line of poetry, a painting, a fleeting memory or the natural world. I remain in awe of the wonder of music and its ability to deeply touch and heal the human spirit.”
Dace Aperāne
Composer
““Aperāne takes communicative delight in directly spoken beauty. [Her] lambent and idyllic music is eloquent and silver-tongued. Many of these pieces are of such resilient delicacy as to suggest a secret garden within a secret garden.”
“Dace Aperāne is a sound lyricist, a chamber musician, a lover of balance rather than a creative challenger, and the strength of her lyricism is a clear source of simplicity. Led by Māris Sirmais, this attribute of her music was highlighted by the clear, caressing sound of the State Choir Latvija.”
“The poetry of Imants Ziedonis inspired Two Fantasies for Saxophone Quartet and Piano by Dace Aperāne. Merely Sun begins with mysterious, lyrical interplay between the saxophones, becomes playful, and then concludes on a somber note, with rising notes in the saxophones, which then seem to evaporate with the sound of a triangle.”
“Wild Nights! Wild Nights!” by Dace Aperans, on the famous poem by Emily Dickinson, is one of a group of three Dickinson settings. This piece is remarkable for its sensitivity to the text, echoing and complementing Dickinson’s ecstatic, profound and compact style.”
About Dace Aperāne
Composer
Dace Aperāne (Aperans), composer, teacher and conductor, was born in 1953 in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Latvian parents Martins and Ilga Stauvers. At the age of 11 she began learning the piano and shortly after began composing piano pieces in creative musicianship classes led by Dr. Peggie Sampson. Winnipeg’s multicultural community left a lasting influence on Dace’s interest in ethnic musical traditions. She studied composition at McGill University in Montreal and graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music. At McGill, she studied with Charles Palmer, Bruce Mather and Brian Cherney. During this time, she also directed the Montreal Latvian youth choir and performed with the Montreal Latvian Folk Music Ensemble.
