Composers > Andris Dzenītis

Andris Dzenītis

"It is most difficult to create music without invoking your personal griefs, national sufferings, political agendas, illustrative scenes... it is a discussion about the ecology of the soul. Sounds should reflect external processes, of beauty and the laws of physics, the untouchable and that which cannot be explained in words."

Andris Dzenītis


BIOGRAPHY

Andris Dzenītis was born on 23 January, 1978 in Riga. He studied composition with Pēteris Vasks at the Dārziņš Music School from 1993 to 1996. The Latvian Composers‘ Union awarded his Sonata for Violin and Piano Pamestie (The Abandoned) their chamber music prize in 1994. He continued his studies with Kurt Swertsik at the Vienna School of Music and Drama on a Herder Scholarship in 1996 and 1997, and then at the Latvian Academy of Music with Pēteris Plakidis and the Lithuanian Music Academy with Osvaldas Balakauskas, earning the Master’s Degree in 2003.

Dzenītis has taken part in young composers‘ seminars at Ivanovo, Russia (1995) and Boswil, Switzerland (1996), and participated in masterclasses with Magnus Lindberg, Pär Lindgern and Bent Sørensen. His music has been performed in Latvia and abroad, at such venues and events as the Baltic Breezes over Malasia (1996), the Warsaw Autumn Festival (1997), the Gaida festival in Vilnius (1998, 2002), Spelplan Stockholm (2002), the Arēna festival in Riga (2002–2012), Maerzmusik Berlin (2003), the NYYD festival in Tallinn, the Bergen International Music Festival (2005), the Klangspuren festival in Austria (2005), and the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada (2006), Time of Music, Viitasari (2006), ISCM World Music Days (Hong Kong 2007), Musica Viva, Germany (2012) and elsewhere by significant Latvian and international ensembles and musical formations like Latvian Radio Choir, orchestras Riga Chamber Players, Sinfonietta Riga, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken - Kaiserlautern, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin and conductor Karel Mark Chichon, Kroumata percussion ensemble Stockholm, Paragon ensemble Glasgow, Reinbert Evers and Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien, Caput (Iceland), Ensemble Modern and conductor Peter Eotvos. He received the Copyright Infinity Award in 2003, was nominated for an award in the Latvian national cinematography competition Lielais Kristaps in 2004, earned second place at the Emīls Dārziņš Choir Music Competition in 2005, and first place at the P. Jurgenson International Young Composers‘ Competition in Moscow in 2006. He was awarded the Latvian Great Music Award in 2006 for his vocal symphonic work Fides. Spes. Caritas.

Dzenītis is active as a music critic, journalist and lecturer. Since 2003, he has been editor of the magazine Mūzikas Saule. He has presented lectures at the London Guildhall School of Music and the Latvian Academy of Culture. He has also organized the Young Baltic Composers‘ Workshop at Dundaga (2002–2006), Mazsalaca (2008, 2010) and Cēsis (2012), and has taught composition at the Jāzeps Mediņš College of Music since 2005 and Cēsis College of Music since 2011.

In 2004, Andris Dzenītis became a member of the Latvian Composers’ Union.


WRITINGS (a selection)

Nošu lapu stūrī: vārdi sev (Sheet Music in the Corner: Words to Myself) // Mūzikas Saule, 2000, no. 1, 18–19
Redzamā mūzika (Visible Music) [about the direction of electronic and electro-acoustic music] // Studija, December/January 2002/2003, 42–45
Drūms stāsts par Jākobu Lencu (A Sombre Story about Jacob Lenz) // Mūzikas Saule, 2003, no. 4, 18–20
Kā definēt kopumu? (How to Define Totality?) [interview with Voldemārs Johansons] // Mūzikas Saule, 2003, no. 4, 18–21
Dievišķais un pasaulīgais (The Sacred and the Worldly) // Mūzikas Saule, 2004, no. 4, 18–21
Zelta grāmatas rakstītājs (The Writer of the Gold Book) [interview with Armands Strazds] // Mūzikas Saule, 2006, no. 2, 8–11
Writings, interviews and reviews for the magazine Mūzikas Saule


DISCOGRAPHY

Ave Maria / Latvian Radio Choir, Conductor Sigvards Kļava – 12’33” // Latviešu mūzika Rīgā – 1999, Latvian Radio, LRCD 031

...apstākļi, pamošanās. Domīgi paklusēt (…circumstances, awakening. Thoughtfully quiet) / Latvian Radio Choir, Ieva Ezeriete (soprano solo), Conductor Kaspars Putniņš – 36’21” // Eņģeļi viņas ausī. Latviešu jaunā mūzika. Angels in Her Ear. Latvian New Music – 2002, Latvian Radio, LR CD 042

Passia – 12’23” // e-muzika – 2002, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre, LMIPC CD 013

Saule / Latvian Radio Choir, Conductor Kaspars Putniņš – 16’34” // Divejāda saule tek. Latviešu jaunā mūzika. Latvian New Music – 2003, Latvian Radio, LR CD 043

Books of Silence / Latvian Radio Choir, orchestra Rīgas kamermūziķi, Conductor Kaspars Putniņš // Les Livres de ton Silence – 2004, Latvian Radio, LR CD 046

Der Todeskeim. Der Lebenskeim / Altera veritas – 15’33” // Skatoties... sapņojot – 2005, Brīvās mūzikas aģentūra

Four Madrigals by e. e. cummings / Latvian Radio Chamber Singers, Conductor Kaspars Putniņš – 14’07”// Saules lēkts – 2005, Latvian Music Information Centre & Latvian Radio, LMIC CD-2005-3

Seven Madrigals by e. e. cummings / Patricia Green (soprano), ensemble New Music Concerts – 16’52” // Winning Music. Award Winning Compositions by Latvian Composers – 2006, LMIC 007

Seven Madrigals by e. e. cummings / Ieva Parša (mezzo-soprano), instrumental ensemble – 16’39” // Ieva Parša. Skaņu labirints – 2009, Music and Art Support Foundation, [s.n.]

The Spirit of Harlequin for clarinet / Egīls Šēfers - 9’19” // Egīls Šēfers. Ziemeļsaule / Northern Sun – 2010, LMIC 022

Sitivit anima mea for organ / Ligita Sneibe – 10’49” // Ligita Sneibe. Latvian Organ Music – 2010, Riga Sound Recording Studio, RS 071

Dorada for piano / Diāna Baibusa-Zandberga - 7’38” // Diāna Zandberga. Sapņi par Spāniju / Dreams of Spain – 2011, Diāna Zandberga, [s.n.]


LITERATURE (a selection)

I. Lūsiņa, Māksliniekam ir jābūt egoistam (An Artist Must be an Egoist) [regarding the composer’s participation in the international contemporary music festival Warsaw Autumn] // Diena, October 6th, 1997 • B. Kurpniece, Muzikālas variācijas šodienas piederības zīmē: Trīs latviešu jaunās paaudzes komponistu portretskices (Under the Modern Sign of Musical Variations: Three Portrait Sketches of the New Generation’s Composers) [about Andris Dzenītis, Rolands Kronlaks and Jānis Petraškevičs] // Izglītība un Kultūra, Iel. Kultūras telpa un laiks, December 17th, 1998 • J. Rokpelnis, Dzegužkalna muzikālijas (Musical Matters of Dzegužkalns) [essay from the cycle Rīgas iedzimtie (Native Rigans)] // Literatūra un Māksla Latvijā, July 8th, 1999 • I. Šarkovska-Liepiņa, Spriega esamība. Komponists Andris Dzenītis (Intensive Being) [interview] // Māksla, 2000, no. 2, [18]–20 • I. Liepiņa, Neatbildēto jautājumu pirmatskaņojums (The Premiere of Unanswered Questions) [interview] // Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze, December 7th, 2000 • I. Lūsiņa, Divējāda saule tek... (The Sun Flows in Two Ways...) [about the premieres of works by Maija Einfelde, Vilnis Šmīdbergs and Andris Dzenītis at the Latvian Radio concert Divējāda saule tek...] // Diena, February 18th, 2002 • I. Liepiņa, Šādai mūzikai jāplūst no tālienes (This Kind of Music Must Flow From Afar) [review of premieres of works by Andris Dzenītis and Santa Ratniece at the concert in the Anglican Church] // Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze, April 26th, 2004 • I. Šarkovska-Liepiņa, Arēna: divi portreti ar perkusijām stūrī (Arēna: Two Portraits with Percussion in the Corner) [about composers Andris Dzenītis and Pēteris Butāns] // Māksla Plus, 2004, no. 5, 58–59 • O. Silabriedis, Par romantisku bezgalības zīmēšanu (About the Romantic Drawing of Eternity) [interview] // Mūzikas Saule, 2004, no. 5 • M. Dombrovska, Par skaisto, trauslo un gaišo (About the Beautiful, Fragile, and Bright) [about the composer and the chamber opera Tavas klusēšanas grāmata (Books of Silence)] // Latvijas Avīze, November 6th, 2004 • Richard Morrison, Books of revelations [a review of the chamber opera Tavas klusēšanas grāmata] // The Times, 2004, November 12 • I. Šlāpins, Dūriens klausītājiem (A Jab for the Listeners) [interview] // Rīgas Laiks, 2004, no. 11, 68–70, 72 • Mariliis Valkonen, Helilooja Andris Dzenītis – läti muusika enfant terrible (Composer Andris Dzenītis – enfant terrible of Latvian Music) [interview] // Muusika (Tallinn), 2005, no. 11, 28–30 • S. Bušs, Composer Andris Dzenītis: In Process // Music in Latvia 2011

Guntars Pupa, Mārīte Dombrovska
© LMIC, 2013