Professor, Head of Department of Jazz Music
Dr. art. Indrikis Veitners (born 1970) is a Latvian jazz historian, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Arts in 2014 for his dissertation Latvian Jazz History, 1920–1944, which represents the first scholarly study of jazz history in Latvia. In 2018, he published the monograph Latvijas džeza vēsture. 1922–1940 (Musica Baltica). In 2019, he authored the chapter “Development of Jazz in Latvia” in the volume The History of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians and Audience in Context (Equinox Publishing). He has presented his research at several international jazz research conferences in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.
From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Veitners worked as a jazz history expert at the Latvian Literature and Music Museum. He also served as a jazz expert at the Latvian Culture Capital Foundation in 2013–2014 and 2017–2018. In 2013, he was a member of the jury for the Grand Music Award of Latvia, the country’s highest state award in music.
Dr. Veitners is one of the founders of professional jazz education in Latvia. In 2003, he established the first professional jazz education programme at the Riga Dome Choir School. In 2008, he founded and became head of the Jazz Department at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, where he has served as an assistant professor, teaching jazz history and related subjects. Since 2015, he has been a guest lecturer in jazz history at the Viljandi Culture Academy in Estonia.
As a performer, Dr. Veitners is a former member of the ethno-jazz group Patina and is currently a member of the experimental ethno-jazz ensemble Trio Trad, together with Biruta Ozoliņa (voice, kokle) and Vigo Racevskis (percussion). He has worked as a musician with the Latvian Radio Big Band and the wind orchestra Rīga, and has regularly collaborated on musical projects with prominent Latvian jazz musicians, including R. Raubiško, M. Briežkalns, Raimonds Pauls, and D. Paškēvičs. He is currently a member of the big band Mirage Jazz Orchestra and the dixieland ensemble Dream Team 1935.
In 2016, he organized the international musical project Ethnic Process in collaboration with Vladimir Chekasin and Latvian and Lithuanian jazz students, performing at the Birštonas Jazz Festival. He was a member and one of the organizers of the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) Meeting in Riga in 2008 and has participated in IASJ meetings since 1995 in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, and Austria. Since 2008, he has also participated in AEC Pop and Jazz Platform conferences held in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium, and Austria.
