Jana Skarecky (11/11/1957) is a female Canadian contemporary classical composer of vocal and instrumental music – for solo voice, choir, solo instruments, chamber groups, and orchestra.
She was born in Prague, in the Czech Republic, on November 11, 1957. She came to Canada with her family in 1968. In 1980 she received a Bachelor of Music degree in Honours Composition from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, where her primary composition teacher was Barrie Cabena. She also studied piano with Erhard Schlenker and French horn with Felix Acevedo. She is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, in piano performance. In 1987 she received a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Sydney, Australia, where she studied with Peter Sculthorpe.
Ms. Skarecky's compositions cover a wide spectrum of instrumental and vocal resources. Her music has an expressive lyricism, and integrates a variety of influences from Gregorian chant to Czech folksong. Her compositions have been performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Her one-woman opera Emily, the Way You Are was performed to great acclaim in April 2008 at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario by mezzo-soprano Ramona Carmelly and The Talisker Players, conducted by Gary Kulesha. Her orchestral work Streams opened Hammerson Hall of the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga in 1997. She loves writing for the voice, both solo and choral works, and setting poetry to music -- for example, Green and Gold for soprano and piano (settings of poetry by P.K. Page), commissioned for the Wider Boundaries of Daring poetry conference (Windsor, 2001), and the choral work Song of Life, commissioned for Then, Now, & Beyond... a Festival of Music by Women (Ottawa , 2002).