Docent, Department of Composition
Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the most sought-after Latvian composers working today. Performances of his music are heard on every continent and his works are widely recorded. Ēriks is a popular public speaker, which he often combines with leading masterclasses and conducting.
Born in Priekule, Latvia, in 1977, Ēriks Ešenvalds studied at the Latvian Academy of Music and was a member of the Latvian State Choir. He held the position of Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Ēriks has been teaching composition at the Latvian Academy of Music for over twenty years.
His music has been performed in venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris, The Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Tokyo Opera City, and Sydney Opera House.
Large-scale premieres include Lakes Awake at Dawn for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Pleiades for the Grant Park Music Festival Chicago, A Shadow for the BBC Proms, Dreams Under Your Feet for the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and Whispers on the Prairie Wind for the Utah Symphony and Utah Chamber Artists. Passion and Resurrection was premiered by the Latvian State Choir and Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and has been performed by Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. His second Easter oratorio, St Luke Passion was premiered by Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga. Voice of the Ocean, written for leading organist Iveta Apkalna, has been performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Kremerata Baltica, and Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Visions of Arctic: Night was premiered by Liepaja Symphony Orchestra. Nordic Light, his multimedia symphony on the folklore and mythology of the northern lights, has been performed in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. His full-scale opera The Immured was premiered at the Latvian National Opera and Ballet.
His music appears on recordings from Trinity College Choir Cambridge, Polyphony with Britten Sinfonia, Latvian Radio Choir with Sinfonietta Riga, Latvian State Choir, Portland State Chamber Choir, PLU Choir of the West, VOCES8, ORA Singers, The Crossing, Vasari Singers, Merton College Choir Oxford, Anna Lapwood with Pembroke College Chapel Choir Cambridge, UCD Choral Scholars, Iveta Apkalna with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, youth choir Kamēr…, and the national youth choirs of Great Britain, Scotland, and the Netherlands, amongst others.
Podium Music is managing Ēriks Ešenvalds’ commissions and workshop schedule. Ēriks Ešenvalds is exclusively published by Musica Baltica.