Guest lecturer, Department of Musicology, Department of Composition
Gundega Šmite (1977) was born in Riga, Latvia. She holds a Doctoral degree (Dr art.) from Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in musicology as well as a Master's degree (MA) in composition and a master’s degree in health sciences and psychology with specialization in Music Therapy from Riga Stradins University. Gundega Šmite has refined her compositional skills through participation in international masterclasses with Fabio Nieder, Salvatore Sciarrino, Oskar Strasnoy, Philip Hurrell, and Unsuk Chin.
Since 2008, she has been a lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Music, teaching various music theory courses from undergraduate to doctoral study programs. From 2009 to 2012, she held a chairman's position at the Latvian Composers' Union. She has been the artistic director of the contemporary music festival "Arena" for the same years.
She has won numerous prizes and recognitions for her compositional work. Her works have been performed around the world in prominent Contemporary music festivals Klangspuren, Time of Music, Baltic Sea Festival, Sounds New, ISCM World New Music Days, Time of Music among others, as well as in public concerts worldwide by Berlin, Swedish and Latvian Radio choir, BBC singers, Stockholm saxophone quartet, Ensemble Lucilin (Belgium), BIT20 (Norway), Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France) among others.
Gundega Šmite acquired of the Grand Music Award (2019) in the category "New Work of the Year." Nominated for the first Choral Music Award in 2023 for her creativity in the choral music genre, she won the award in 2024 for her diptych "Songs of the Sun" for choir and organ. Among her international awards is the winning of the General Award at the International Rostrum of Composers 2025 for her composition "The White Birds".
Since 2022, literary creativity has become an essential part of Gundega Šmite's creative activities. The books "Grieķu svīta" (2022) and "Koncerts stāstos" (2024) have been nominated for the Latvian Literature Award. Meanwhile, "The Wonderful World of Opera" (2023) has won the Special Prize of the International Jānis Baltvilks Award.
She is partially residing in Greece, Thessaloniki.