Inspired by her life as an American artist living in Australia, Emily Granger makes her solo recording debut performing contemporary works that reveal the breadth and beauty of harp music from the two countries. With themes of travel and isolation, serenity and solitude, this music paints a vivid portrait of an artist's life In Transit between opposite sides of the globe.
Memories and moods infuse Tristan Coehlo's evocative title track as well as the composer's The Old School, recalling an artists' residence in Australia's Blue Mountains where he first met Emily. Laura Zaerr's rhythmical River Right Rhumba is inspired by West African drumming, whilst Sally Greenaway's Liena, named after Melbourne-born harpist Liena Lacey, draws upon jazz and Latin dance music. Ross Edwards evokes a fantasia in his hypnotic The Harp and the Moon, whilst Libby Larsen's bold Theme and Deviations is a tease on the traditional musical form. Sally Whitwell's Undiminished is just that both harmonically and in spirit. Emily's virtuosity is on full display in Kate Moore's soaring Spin Bird, inspired by Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and in Nancy Gustavson's Great Day, steeped in colourful glissandi showing off the harp in all its glory.
Turning her hand to arranging, Emily has adapted Elena Kats-Chernin's Blue Silence, originally for cello and piano, underscoring the works calming, healing and meditative properties; and Augusta Read Thomas' Eurythmy Etude "Still Life", originally for solo piano, stemming from the Greek meaning for beautiful and harmonious rhythm. Emily closes the album with Deborah Henson-Conant's The Nightingale, one of her earliest musical memories as a young harpist.
Emily Granger has established herself as one of the leading harpists in Australia. She has performed as Guest Principal Harp with the Chicago, Sydney, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Opera Australia Orchestra, and presented chamber recitals at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Centre, Melbourne Recital Centre, and Sydney Opera House Utzon Room. Emily has collaborated with top ensembles and instrumentalists in Australia and the US, including the International Chamber Ensemble, Flinders Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, Omega Ensemble, and Nexas Saxophone Quartet. She was a finalist in the 2021 APRA Art Music Awards for Performance of the Year. Emily studied harp performance at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Chicago College of the Performing Arts with Susann McDonald and Sarah Bullen.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"impressed with some spectacular playing, both skilled technically and emotially poignant a performance that wasn't just brave, but also brilliant" Limelight
" harpist Emily Granger effortlessly straddles the worlds of classical and popular music." Melbourne Recital Centre
"Emily is Chicago's great loss and our great gain since coming here [she] has firmly established herself as an outstanding addition to the Australian concert scene." Sydney Arts Guide
