Composers > Jānis Petraškevičs

Jānis Petraškevičs

"I suppose that music exists uninterrupted; I am looking for an avenue where the sounds flow to catch the miracle of music. In the moment I hear the sound approaching I am also thinking about the same sound moving away from somewhere else; in the moment the sound reaches me and pierces my Self I am thinking that the same sound is not existing anymore somewhere else; in the moment the sound is leaving me I am thinking about somebody hearing the same sound approaching.

However, I can (must) admit it is not a single sound wandering in the world like the wind of imagination. Vibrating and tremoring the air music itself can find me wherever I go. At this instance I do not care where the sound emerges from and where it is striving to..."

Jānis Petraškevičs


BIOGRAPHY

Jānis Petraškevičs was born on February 10th, 1978 in Riga. He studied at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School in the violin class (1985–1994) and then theory and composition with Ģederts Ramans (1994–1996). He also studied at the Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in the composition class of Pēteris Plakidis (1996–1998; 1999–2003). Following this he studied at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm with Sven-David Sandström (1998–1999). He has had post-graduate studies in composition with Ole Lützow-Holm at the University of Gothenburg since 2004.

He has attended many mastercourses such as: 4th International Academy for New Composition at Schwaz, Austria (with Boguslav Schaeffer and Marek Choloniewski, 1996); the International Seminar for Young Composers in the Baltic Region at Visby, Gotland (1997); at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (Germany, 1998), the International Composition Seminar at Brussels with Lucas Francesconi and Fausto Romitelli (2000); under the Royaumont Foundation program Voix Nouvelles at the workshop in the Abbey of Royaumont, France (with Brian Ferneyhough, José Evangelista and Jean-Luc Hervé, 2000); three months of study at the Enschede Conservatorium in the Netherlands (with David Rowland, 2001); Domain Forget composition courses at Charlevoix, Canada (2001) and the Summer Academy Schloss Solitude, Germany with Chaya Czernowin, Steve Kazuo Takasugi and Richard Barrett (2003).

With his composition Bultas lidojums... (Flight of the Arrow…) his recording was noted at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1997). He received a commission for a new work by the Ensemble InterContemporain for a work called Trop proche / trop loin which received its premiere in Paris at the Pompidou Centre in 2002. In 2003 he was awarded first prize at the ABAM composers’ competition in Hamburg for his work Et la nuit illumina la nuit. His music has been performed in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland. And, he has been noted in Latvian press concerning questions about music.


DISCOGRAPHY

Bultas lidojums. Parādīšanās... Un jau tālu tālumā (Flight of the Arrow. Just Heaving in Sight and…Far Afar) / Leons Veldre – 13’34” // Music in Latvia 2007 – 2007, LMIC 010

Et la nuit illumina la nuit, recitativi ed ariosi per clarinetto in La, viola e piano op. 2 / Egīls Šēfers, Kaspars Vilnītis, Jānis Petraškevičs – 9’31” // Egīls Šēfers. Ziemeļsaule – 2010, LMIC 022


WRITINGS

Par dažiem laikmetīgās mūzikas aspektiem (About Some Aspects of Contemporary Music) // Mūzikas Saule, 2001, no. 6, 16–17
Par liminālā apvidus mūziku jeb klejojumi Ģērģa Ligeti laikā un telpā (About the Liminal Region of Music or Travels in the Time and Space of Gyorgy Ligeti) // Mūzikas Saule, 2003, no. 5, 10–11
Lučāno Berio stils un idejas (Luciano Berio’s Style and Ideas) // Mūzikas Saule, 2004, no. 1, 14–17


LITERATURE

I. Zemzaris, Spārnu mūzika (Music of Wings) [reviews of concerts, including Emīls Dārziņš College of Music graduates Andris Dzenītis and Jānis Petraškevičs’ exams at the Latvian Academy of Music Organ Hall] // Literatūra un Māksla. Mēs, 1996, April 25th/May 2nd • S. Ņedzvecka, Mūzikas tribīnē ROSTRUM’ 97 (The Music Tribune ROSTRUM’ 97) [also about Jānis Petraškevičs’ Bultas lidojums (Flight of the Arrow)] // Literatūra un Māksla. Mēs, 1997, July 10th/17th • B. Kurpniece, Muzikālas variācijas šodienas piederības zīmē: Trīs latv. 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. • G. Pupa, No – līdz (From – To) [a review of concerts, including the audio demonstrations of Jānis Petraškevičs’ works at the Latvian Composers Union ] // Literatūra un Māksla Latvijā, February 28th, 2002 • S. Bušs, Muzikālās drāmas meistars Jānis Petraškevičs (Jānis Petraškevičs – Musical Drama Master) // Mūzikas Saule, 2003, no. 3, in the attachment Winning Works at the New Music Publicist Competition • Dominique Druhen, Tremplin 1 [annotation to the Ensemble InterContemporain concert in Paris, including a write-up of the music of Jānis Petraškevičs] // accents, 2002, september–december • G. Garūta, Šķīstīšana – tā varētu būt mūzikas funkcija (Purification – that Could be a Function of Music) [interview] // Forums, 2002, December 20th/27th • S. Ņedzvecka, Mūzikas atrasts (Discovered by Music) [interview] // Mūzikas Saule, 2006, no. 5, 7–11 • S. Ņedzvecka [English translation by Jana Teteris], Discovered by Music [interview] // Music in Latvia 2007. – Riga: LMIC, 2007, 41–46


Guntars Pupa, supplemented by Mārīte Dombrovska
Photo - Edmunds Mickus
© LMIC