Mence, Selga (1953)
Biography Works
Selga Mence was born on January
12th, 1953 in Liepāja. Her father – math teacher Jānis Mencis. In
his youth, he studied choir conducting at the Jēkabs Vītoliņš
Education Institute of Riga. Her brother Jānis Mencis Jr. is also a
mathematician. Selga Mence graduated the 5th High School of
Liepāja, with a focus on German (gold medal, 1971),
after two years she was at the Emīls Melngailis Music College of
Liepāja, then the composition class at the Latvian State
Conservatory and studies with Pauls Dambis (1978, 1988). She has
studied musicology. She worked for many years at the Latvian
Culture Ministry Repertoire Editorial Council (1980–1987). In the
80s, she managed the children’s music sphere in the Composers’
Union. As of 1985, she is a lecturer and is currently an associate
professor in the Latvian Academy of Music composition department.
As of 2004, Selga Mence has been the head of the composition
department at the Latvian Academy of Music.
Selga Mence’s name was first highlighted in association with
choir music. Her works were performed at the Scandinavian Song
Festival in Norway in 2000 and at many Song Festivals in Latvia,
the United States, and Canada. Many Latvian choirs have achieved
victory at international competitions with her works.
Selga Mence has participated in such projects as
the Songbridge
2000 festival Europa Cantat
XIV in Nevers, France, and at
the Month of European Music in
2001, Basel. Her cycle Dziesmas
(Songs) for two pianos was included in the top ten
recommended works at the 1999 International Rostrum
of Composers in Paris.
Choir songs, children’s music – in these genres of creative
work Selga Mence’s bright emotionality has been especially
expressed, as well as the liveliness of musical images, love of
Latvian folk verses with the traditional, stable world of value.
Often using Latvian (and Liv) folk melodies and texts (often
blurring the boundary between folksong arrangement and original
music) altogether included in the national romantic tradition that
still is developed with contemporary compositional materials. The
works display sonoric colouristic possibilities and aleatoric
characteristically improvisational games. Of highest importance is
the intonative material that, determinedly and logically – Selga
Mence’s characteristic qualities – directs, sets alight the work’s
overall perception. Guntars Pupa correctly wrote, that she, as one
of the first of the new composers, actualised
melody in Latvian music in the 80s.
(Literatūra un Māksla, 1986). It is
possible that, due to this creative influence,
the song genre has become
significant in her newest instrumental writings, in a symbolic way
concentrating within herself a very nuanced poetic
character.