Docent, Department of Composition
Jānis Petraškevičs was born in Riga on February 10, 1978. Studied violin at the EDMS (1985–1994), then music theory and composition (with Ģederts Ramans, 1994–1996). Studied at the JVLMA composition department (in the class of Pēteris Plakidis, 1996–1998 and 1999–2003), also at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm (in the composition class of Sven-David Sandström, 1998–1999). Studied composition in the master's program at the University of Gothenburg with Ole Lützow-Holm (2004-2007). In 2014, he defended his doctoral thesis Multidimensionality in the Avant-Garde Music of the Second Half of the 20th Century (in the Compositional Techniques of K. Stockhausen, P. Boulez, B. Ferneyhough, E. Carter and G. Ligeti) at the Latvian Academy of Music, obtaining PhD.
He has completed various master classes – 4th International Academy for New Composition in Schwaz, Austria (with Boguslaw Schaeffer and Marek Choloniewski, 1996), the international seminar Young Composers in Baltic Region in Visby, Gotland (1997), Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in Germany (1998), International Composition Seminar in Brussels (with Luca Francesconi and Fausto Romitelli, 2000), Royaumont Foundation program Voix Nouvelles composition courses and master class in Royaumont Abbey, France (with Brian Ferneyhough, José Evangelista and Jean-Luc Hervé, 2000), three-month studies at the Enschede Conservatory in the Netherlands (with David Rowland, 2001), Domain Forget composition courses in Charlevoix, Canada (2001) and the International Masterclass for young composers organized by the Summer Academy Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany (with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Richard Barrett, 2003), as well as Ear Lab under the direction of Luca Francesconi in Stresa, Italy (2008).
Received a commission from Ensemble InterContemporain for the work trop proche / trop loin, which he successfully realized (premiere in Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2002). In 2014, he received a commission from the London Wigmore Hall and Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt) to compose the piece gefährlich dünn (premiere in London, Wigmore Hall, 2014). In 2017, he received a commission from the Donaueshinger Musiktage to compose an orchestral piece for the festival's closing concert.
With the recording of the piece Flight of the Arrow he gained attention at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1997). In 2003, he won 1st prize in the ABAM Composers Competition in Hamburg for the work et la nuit illumina la nuit. For the composition Darkroom he received the Grand Music Award 2013 and the AKKA/LA Copyright Infinity Award (2014). In 2014 he received the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (Italy). In 2023 he won 1st prize in the composition competition Prix Annelie de Man (Amsterdam), was awarded as the Latvian Academy of Music's Teacher of the Year and was nominated for the Grand Music Award for the clarinet concerto Long Walks (in the category New Work of the Year).
In his compositional practice, he has collaborated with the South German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra, the Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Rīga, as well as with the new music ensembles Ensemble Modern, Ensemble InterContemporain, ensemble unitedberlin, Ensemble SurPlus, Ex Novo Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and Ukho Ensemble Kyiv. Works have been performed in Austria, Belgium, France, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Poland, including the Venice Biennale (2008), ISCM World Music Days (2008, Vilnius), the Musica Viva concert series in Munich (2012), the Warsaw Autumn Festival (2013), Ultraschall Berlin (2015), Archipel (2015, Geneva), the Donaueschinger Musiktage Festival (2018), the Skaņu mežs Festival (2021). In 2023, he was the resident composer at the AFEKT festival in Estonia.