Pianist Christina Petrowska Headlines York Fine Arts Canadian Music CD "Northern Sirens"

TORONTO, May 5, 1999 -- - Pianist Christina Petrowska headlines the latest release on York University's York Fine Arts record label: Northern Sirens, an engaging collection of works for solo piano by five leading Canadian women composers, to be launched May 19.

Established artists Ann Southam, Diana McIntosh and Alexina Louie are represented on the CD alongside rising stars Larysa Kuzmenko and Heather Schmidt.

The featured works, all composed within the past two decades, offer a connoisseur's pick of some of the exciting music-making happening in the Canadian classical scene today. By turns lyrical and powerful, frequently tonal, and always compelling, the Northern Sirens selections showcase Petrowska's gift for musical colour and her crystalline technique.

Included are Louie's delicate four-part suite, Music for Piano, Schmidt's striking Solus and McIntosh's evocative Worlds Apart. Southam's 1981 composition in the hypnotic Rivers series and Kuzmenko's virtuosic Diabolic Dance and In Memoriam are recorded here for the first time.

Petrowska frequently collaborates with these composers, and has presented many of their works in concert.

"They are consummate musicians, and they know how to play and write for piano," she says. "I love playing these works."

Petrowska also cherishes the personal relationships that have grown out of this professional association. "They are good friends who have always encouraged and inspired me, especially for this recording," she says.

Internationally recognized as an interpreter of the contemporary piano repertoire, Petrowska has premiered more than a hundred works written for her by leading Canadian, American and European composers. She has appeared on major concert stages on four continents, most recently in New York and Taipei, and is often heard on radio and television. Parallel to her career as a performer and recording artist, she is professor of piano and musicology at York University.

Northern Sirens was produced by Petrowska's colleague,York digital arts professor and Music Department chair Michael Coghlan, and is distributed internationally by the Canadian Music Centre.

Northern Sirens is the ninth release on the York Fine Arts digital recording and publishing label, launched by York University's Faculty of Fine Arts in 1996. Through its productions in the York Artists Signature Series and York Learning Series, the label profiles the resident talent and expertise in the Faculty of Fine Arts and the larger University community. The featured artists, scholars and producers donate their time and work to the project. Proceeds from sales of York Fine Arts productions go towards program and student support.

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Details:

Northern Sirens - Christina Petrowska, piano (YFA00999)

Launch Reception:
Wed. May 19, 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
The Heliconian Hall
35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto

For more information or a review copy of the CD, please contact:

Carol Bishop
Publicist
Faculty of Fine Arts
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 20421
email: cbishop@yorku.ca

Brigitte Kleer
Public Relations Manager
Faculty of Fine Arts
York University
email: bkleer@yorku.ca