Ēriks Ešenvalds

Ēriks Ešenvalds (born January 26, 1977 in Priekule ) is a contemporary Latvian composer whose focus is on choral music .

Life

After finishing school, Ešenvalds studied from 1995 to 1997 at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Riga and then at the Latvian Music Academy Jāzeps Vītols with Selga Mence . He obtained his bachelor's degree in composition there in 2002 and his master's degree in 2004. In the following years he attended master classes with Michael Finnissy , Klaus Huber , Philippe Manoury and Jonathan Harvey, among others . From 2002 to 2011 he sang in the Latvian State Choir.

In 2011 he was awarded the two-year award Office of the Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge . He currently teaches composition at the Latvian Music Academy. He is married and has four kids.

Awards

2005, 2007, 2015: Lielā mūzikas balva (Latvian: "Great Music Prize")
2006: First place in the Tribune internationale des compositeurs in the category "Composers under 30 years" for the piece "The Legend of the Walled-in Woman"
2011: Award “Best Latvian Classical Album of the Year” for the CD “At the foot of the Sky”, sung by the Latvian State Choir
2013: Award "Best Latvian Classical Album of the Year" for the CD "O Salutaris", sung by the youth choir Kamēr ...
2015: Nomination of the album "Northern Lights" for the Gramophone Classical Music Awards

Works and recordings

Ešenvalds works with numerous internationally renowned choirs and vocal ensembles and his works have been performed at various music festivals. The following records contain exclusively compositions by Ēriks Ešenvalds:

Passion and Resurrection (Britten Sinfonia and Polyphony under Stephen Layton, Hyperion Records, 2006)
O Salutaris ( Kamēr ... under Māris Sirmais, 2011)
At the Foot of the Sky (Latvian State Choir under Māris Sirmais, 2013)
Northern Lights ( The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge under Stephen Layton, Hyperion Records, 2015)
St Luke Passion (Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga, Ondine, 2016)
The Doors of Heaven (Portland State Chamber Choir under Ethan Sperry, 2017)

Ešenvalds composed the official anthem for the World Choir Games , which were held in 2014 in Riga as the then European Capital of Culture , the piece My Song to a text by Rabindranath Tagore . In addition to choral music, he also composes instrumental and chamber music and in 2007 his first opera Augļu koks ir Jāzeps (“Joseph is a young fruit tree ”, based on a quotation from the Bible from Genesis 49:22 LUT ) premiered. In 2016, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin premiered his “multimedia symphony ” Nordic Light , which deals with the northern lights .

Web links

Individual evidence

^ International Rostrum of Composers. imc-cim.org, accessed November 16, 2017.
↑ Ē.Ešenvalds has composed an official song. riga2014.org of July 4, 2012, accessed November 16, 2017.

personal data
SURNAME	Ešenvalds, Ēriks
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Latvian composer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 26, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH	Priekule

[1] International Rostrum of Composers. imc-cim.org, accessed November 16, 2017.

[2] Ē.Ešenvalds has composed an official song. riga2014.org of July 4, 2012, accessed November 16, 2017.