Emerging artists ready to shine

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

The Arts on 817 is proud to present Strathmore’s Emerging Artist as part of their Season 5 concert series on May 6 at the Strathmore United Church.

The concert will feature the musical vocals of Rayanne and Shelby Laycock, accompanied by Terrah Harper, with Susanne Sevcik on piano and Talia Sinclair showcasing her violin skills. 

Rayanne Laycock comes from a very musical family with her mother, Loralee Laycock being a music teacher and being very influential in the arts in Strathmore. Rayanne says she’s “been surrounded by music since birth.” 

She says that music has always been a huge part of her family “I think it’s in my blood,” she laughs. “I don’t think it’s a surprise that I love music and I want to keep persusing music.” 

Rayanne and her sister Shelby grew up in Strathmore taking voice lessons for musical theatre and competing in music festivals from a very young age. They both took part in choir and also enjoyed performing in the Strathmore High Schools (SHS) drama productions throughout their high school years. 

Rayanne is currently enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah where she is studying for her Bachelor of Arts focusing on music, dance and theatre. She started her post-secondary education at Lethbridge’s Grant MacEwan for 2 years before transferring to BYU. 

“I’ll be doing musical theatre. There will be contrasting songs, they won’t all be the same,” said Rayanne. 

Shelby Laycock will also be delighting the audience on May 6 with her vocal talents. She is also enrolled at BYU in the music program for vocal performance. She attended Lethbridge for a year and a half before she transferred to Utah.

“I grew up doing mostly musical theatre and being in my mom’s choir,” said Shelby. “I decided to take the plunge and try studying music.” 

Shelby began the classical voice program at the University of Lethbridge. 

“It was focused on opera and I loved it,” she said. “I loved UofL but I wanted a little bit more of a challenge and I heard that BYU had an amazing program.”  

Shelby and Rayanne will be singing one English duet in the concert.

“Everything else I’ll be singing is Italian, and German and French, some English, but all classical,” said Shelby. “It catches people off guard.”

Sevcik has also been busy working towards her music degree at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. Sevcik’s musical journey began at age eight when she began taking piano lessons. Initially she learned from her mother before beginning lessons with Carolyn Steeves. 

“People can expect a wide range of music from Bach to Broadway! I will be playing classical piano with works as old as Bach and Schubert and as recent as a short virtuosic piece by Canadian composer Marc-André Hamelin,” said Sevcik. “Strathmore is a community that supports the arts, so I am very grateful to have been given all the opportunities to pursue music that I did growing up here. 

“It’s also exciting to see how the music scene has changed since I started learning piano 12 years ago – I was able to help and watch the growth of the Strathmore Performing Arts Festival, which is very exciting to see. In a way, this concert is a thank you to the audience that will be filled with all the people whose support helped develop my love of music. Without the support from my community, I wouldn’t be doing what I love today.”

Tickets are $35 for adults and $10 for youths; tickets can be purchased ahead of time in person at The Vault, online (www.smoreuc.com) or at the door.

“Something like this doesn’t happen every year and for a lot of the guys, it’ll be their only provincial championship that they win in their career,” he said. “I won’t have another opportunity to compete at a provincial tournament just in my age. So, in my last go at it, it is pretty special that I was able to win it.”

In addition to being named tournament and Oilers MVP, White was among three players to receive a tournament All Star recognition.