Composers and Authors /

Vaivods, Juris (1966)

Biography   Works  

Juris Vaivods
Juris Vaivods
Foto 1

Juris Vaivods was born on March 29th, 1966 in the Preiļi region at the Vanagi House. He finished the Līvāni School of Music specializing in accordion (1976–1981, Paulis Šalajevs) and choir conducting at the Daugavpils College of Music (1981–1985, Vanda Drobiševska). He studied choir conducting at the Latvian Academy of Music with Edgars Račevskis (1985–1992), receiving his Bachelor’s degree, and with Imants Kokars (1992–1994), receiving his Master’s degree. While at the Latvian Academy of Music, he studied composition with Pauls Dambis and Pēteris Plakidis. He trained in masterclasses at the Bach Academy of Music (Germany) and the conducting masterclass of Kåre Hanken (Norway).

Studying in Daugavpils, he founded the Daugavpils band, played in the Wind Orchestra Daugava, sang in the choirs Daugava and Latgale. Studying at the Latvian Academy of Music, he formed the choir Akadēmiskais Vanadziņš, the men’s vocal group Grazia con figurazia. In 1988, he founded the Riga city group Usma. He worked as the accompanist for the Riga Dome Boy’s Choir (1992–1993), he was the artistic director and principal conductor of the chamber choir Versija (1993–1997) and the men’s choir Dziedonis (1992–1998). As of 1997, he has been working as the director of the music department at the Dailes Theatre.

He has conducted vocal ensemble masterclasses at the international Latvian young musicians’ camps in Jaungulbene (1994) and Ogre (1996, 1998). With the chamber choir Versija, he participated in international competitions, festivals, and forums in Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Latvia (1994–1997), with the group Usma he performed in Malaysia and Singapore (1988). Under the direction of Juris Vaivods, much Latvian choir music was premiered and recorded at Latvian Radio. He recorded a CD at the French record company JADE.

He was the Riga 800 artistic director of the festival zone Rīga dzied (Riga Sings) and was the musical director of the Rīga dejo (Riga Dances) zone. He was the musical director of the dance festival and dance performance Četri meti (Four Sketches) (2001), artistic director of the XXIII All Song Festival Youth Choir concert, and at the international regatta sailing event Sapņo līdzi vējam (Dream With the Wind) (2003), as well as the musical director of the concert Mēs – Eiropā (We – in Europe) (2004).

Many folksong arrangements by Juris Vaivods have been performed at Latvian song festivals, the composer has received awards also at the festival choir song competition (Aizalaida sauļeite (The Sun Hid) (1993), Rīgas dziesmas (Songs of Riga) (1998)). He received the Theatre Award for Best Music Author for the music for the theatre productions of Precības (Wedding) (2001) andRaudupiete (2003).

www.lmic.lv

Login
draugiem.lv twitter.com facebook.com