Dace Aperāne

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.

After moving to New York in 1976, Dace studied composition in 1977 with David Loeb at the Mannes College of Music and in 1978 music theory with Louise Talma and composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France.  At Hunter College in New York City, she continued her compositional studies with Myron Fink, receiving her Master of Arts degree in 1980.

Dace has composed piano, vocal, chamber, choral, orchestral, ballet and musical theatre music, which has often been inspired by the poetry and folk music of Latvia and other countries as well as the landscapes of her native Manitoba. Many of her works are lyrical and impressionistic in nature, yet also contain passages of heightened expressivity. In a review of her piano music album “Sounds and Echoes” (Skani), recorded by Latvian pianist Diana Zandberga, her music is described as: “lambent and idyllic…eloquent and silver-tongued. Aperane takes communicative delight in directly spoken beauty.” (MusicWeb International).

Since May 18,1989, when Dace conducted the original cast of “Tango Lugano” (a play by Banuta Rubess with Dace’s musical score) in the first of numerous performances at the Daile Theatre in Riga, Latvia, her music has been commissioned and performed in Latvia by numerous Latvian musicians, chamber ensembles, choirs and orchestras, including the Latvian National Choir Latvija, the Riga Cathedral Girls’ Choir Tiara and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The Latvian National Opera Orchestra, under the direction of Janis Zirnis, performed the music of her full length ballet “Edith”, choreographed by Dace Dindonis, for the Latvian National Ballet premiere production on May 24, 1995.
Dace’s music has been aired on Latvian Radio 3 Klasika, American – WQXR, WNYC, MPR, classicaldiscoveries.org, etc., British – BBC, British, Australian and European classical radio stations and recorded on various labels: SKANI/LMIC, Centrediscs/Centredisque, and others.

Her music has also been performed at concerts in the USA, Canada, England, Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Mexico and other countries. Her musical scores are published by Musica Baltica: musicabaltica.com  and have also been issued by the Canadian Music Centre: (under Aperans).  Further information, with a complete list of Dace’s works can be found at Latvian Music information Center.

From the beginning of the 80s, Dace has been a music critic for the newspaper Laiks, and a wide array of her articles about the works of Latvian composers and concerts have been published there and in the cultural magazine Jaunā Gaita.

Dace is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre  and a member of the Latvian Composers Union . She is also the artistic director of the International Latvian Young Musicians’ Master Courses/ Starpautiskie latviešu jauno mūziķu meistarkursi in Sigulda, Latvia, founded by her father and originally held at the Orford Arts Centre, Quebec, and the chairperson of the Latvian Cultural Association TILTS, Inc.  Dace is the recipient of Latvia’s Order of the Three Stars, the first Latvian Music Award and the Latvian Grand Music Award. She lives in Bedford, New York and travels frequently to Latvia.