Flutist Cherise Roberts is a 2015 graduate with high distinction from the music program at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, where she studied with Jack Chen. During 2015-16 she attended Dalhousie University’s Advanced Applied Studies Program in Halifax, NS, studying solo and orchestral literature with Symphony Nova Scotia’s Principal Flautist, Patricia Creighton. This September, 2016, she will be attending University of Toronto to complete her Master’s Degree in Music Performance.
Other teachers include Hal Archer (New York, USA) and Dexter Norville (Barbados). She has attended masterclasses given by Pulitzer Prize winner Composer Michael Colgrass, and has also been the recipient of several awards and scholarships. Cherise received the Irving Burgie Award in 2007 (Barbados), was the recipient of a scholarship to attend the International Music Camp in North Dakota, USA in 2010, and in 2012 she received the Barbados Ball Canada Aid Scholarship (Canada). During her studies at Acadia University, Cherise received the Curtis H. and Margaret T. Chipman Achievement Award in 2012 and 2014, and the Clara McLearn Blakeley Music Scholarship in 2013.
As a young child, Cherise sang in choirs and played in steel-pan orchestras for more than a decade. However, when she began to play the flute her repertoire began to broaden and quickly included classical music. Although being a classical flutist on a small Caribbean island is rare, Cherise embraced this phenomenon. From her beginnings she was a hard worker with a beautiful sound and natural musicality.
Cherise has performed in orchestras with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra (2014-2015), in Symphony Nova Scotia as part of a mentorship exchange with the youth orchestra, and the Barbados National Youth Symphony Orchestra (2005-2012).
As a steel drum performer, she performed with the Barbados National Youth Steel Orchestra, and the Israel Lovell Foundation Steel Orchestra. She has also performed with the Barbados Chamber Ensemble, the Barbados Defense Force Band and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet as part of Shattering the Silence New Music Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Cherise Roberts is dedicated to honing her artistic and performance skills in hopes of becoming a professional orchestral performer and flute soloist, and has dreams of developing classical music in Barbados by creating new possibilities for it, encouraging performance of classical music in concerts, schools, and creating concerto competitions within the secondary school and college systems.
