Reke, Aija (1988)
Biography Works
Aija Reke is a violinist, chamber musician and pedagogue. She graduated Boston University (MM, 2015), USA with CFA Full Tuition Scholarship with Dana Mazurkevich (student of David Oistrakh) and Rotterdam Conservatory (BM, 2013) in the Netherlands with Benzion Shamir. Winner of “Solo Bach Competition” at Boston University (2014), a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, American National Music Honor Society since 2015 and a recipient of the Boston Latvian Cultural Heritage award (2014). She has performed extensively in Europe and North America as a soloist, chamber musician and in numerous orchestras. Aija is a founding member of “Theia Piano Trio”, which toured in the USA. She is a violinist in “Baltic Duo”. The duo focuses on rare repertoire for flute and violin and popularises Latvian chamber music.
She performs regularly with ALEA III – Contemporary Music Ensemble in Residence at Boston University, with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and as a Guest concertmaster of Wellesley Symphony Orchestra under direction of Max Hobart. Aija has played as a sectional violin with Latvian National Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Riga and Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and many other orchestras in USA.
As a passionate pedagogue, she has taught in “El Sistema” program in the USA , Brookline Public Schools and other public and private schools. Her second instrument is baroque violin. Aija has performed with the baroque orchestra “Collegium Musicum” at the University of Toronto (Canada), “Collegium Musicum Riga” (Latvia) and Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (USA) among others.
Aija is the Artistic Director of High Street Concert Series that have monthly concerts at the Latvian Lutheran Church of Boston. http://www.highstreetconcertseries.org/
Her collaboration with several composers led to multiple world premieres, including microtonal “Musings” (2013) for violin solo by Lara Poe, “double images” (2017) by Ketty Nez, “Latvian in New York” (2017) by Mārīte Dombrovska (dedicated to “Baltic Duo”) and “Dawn” (2018) by Jānis Porietis (dedicated to “Baltic Duo”). Composer Lara Poe wrote a Violin Concerto for Aija Reke. Composer John Manuel Pacheco dedicated his Second Violin Sonata (2018) to Aija Reke.
Aija released the recording of her first original work "Meditation - Prayer" (Variations on the Latvian Folk Tune Dark Night, Green Grass) in July, 2019. It is available on Spotify, Amazon, I Tunes, Apple Music and I Heart Radio.
Her second recording “Dawn” by Jānis Porietis, recorded with flutist Agita Arista, was released on Spotify, Amazon, I Tunes, Apple Music and I Heart Radio in September, 2019.
She started her musical studies at the Tukums Music School in Latvia under Dace Šplīte-Lisova and continued at Emīls Dārziņš Music High School with Romans Šnē and Andris Baumanis. She has participated in master classes with Anete Zvaigzne, Ilya Grubert, Oleksandr Semchuk, Arditti String Quartet, Christian Tetzlaff, Benjamin Zander and many others.
She performed in Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, Ukraine, Italy, Romania, Belgium, USA and Canada and participated in Aurora Chamber Music Festival (Sweden), “Terra Magica" (Croatia), “International Music Festival Portogruaro” (Italy), “Summer Music Evenings” (Ukraine), “Educational Bridge Festival” (USA) among many others.
Dedications to Aija Reke:
Second Violin Sonata (2018) by John Manuel Pacheco
“Sketches” (2018) by Ketty Nez for violin and flute
Violin Concerto (microtonal) (2017) by Lara Poe
“Dawn” (2018) for violin and flute by Jānis Porietis (for “Baltic Duo”)
“Latvian in New York” (2018) by Mārīte Dombrovska (for “Baltic Duo”)
“Moon Girl” (2016) by Mārīte Dombrovska (for flute and piano trio – dedicated to Aija Reke, “Theia Trio” and Agita Arista)
Two large scale portraits of Aija Reke with her violin (2011) by Latvian painter Dzidra Bauma
https://aijareke.com/
