Associate Professor, Piano Department
Juris Žvikovs began to play the piano at the age of seven. He studied at the Jelgava School of Music, the Emīls Dārziņš Special College of Music in Riga, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, the Conservatoire de Musique de la Ville de Luxembourg, and the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His teachers have been Zigrīda Šillere, Jānis Lielmanis,
Arnis Zandmanis, Teofils Biķis, Marko Krauss and Robert McDonald.
J. Žvikovs has won awards at several international piano competitions including the M. K. Čiurlionis international piano competition in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Kishinev international piano competition in Moldova, the 2nd Jāzeps Vītols international piano competition in Riga.
J. Žvikovs has won several music awards (including The Great Music Award (Latvia’s Grammy)) and scholarships (including the Fulbright Scholarship as a student and a scholar).
J. Žvikovs regularly performs with the best Latvian orchestras, plays recitals in and outside of Latvia, performs in chamber ensembles.
J. Žvikovs has participated in many music festivals, including Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhauser Kammermusikfest in Austria and Festival de Radio France et Montpellier.
At the same time, J. Žvikovs is an assistant professor at the Latvian Academy of Music. In years 2002-2005 he held a position of Dean of Student affairs in Latvian Academy of Music. He has given master classes at
Universität der Künste Berlin, the California State University at Long Beach, the California Institute of the Arts, Rotterdam Conservatoire in Netherlands, ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Arnhem in Netherlands, Conservatorio di Musica Jacopo Tomadini, Udine in Italy, Conservatorio di Musica Guiseppe Tartini, Trieste in Italy, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Juris Žvikovs took advantage of Fulbright Scholar Exchange Grant working in California Institute of the Arts in academic year 2009/2010.
In 2013 he got a nomination for The Great Music Award (Latvia’s Grammy) in category For an outstanding performance in ensemble.