Professor, Department of Choir Conducting
Professor of Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music Māra Marnauza has graduated with a distinction the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian State Conservatory Choir Conducting Department (1987), conducting class of professor Mendelis Bašs (1982–1987), earned pedagogical doctoral scientific degree in music pedagogy at the University of Latvia (2000).
M. Marnauza is the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the winners of international choir competitions – the chamber choir Fortius (1985) and the female choir Balta (1999), a chief conductor at the Latvian Song Festival (XXV, 2013; XXVI, 2018); a chief conductor at the Baltic States’ Student Song Festival Gaudeamus (1999, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2018), she is a chief conductor of choirs of Dobele and Saldus districts.
She has gained recognition as a conductor in many choir festivals and competitions, concerts and masterclasses in Germany, USA, Ukraine, Sweden, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Belorussia, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Netherland, Belgium, Great Britain, China. M. Marnauza won the Best Conductor’s Award at the Emilis Melngailis Folk Music Competition (1999), and received the international jury’s Special Best Conductor’s Prize at the XIX International Sacred Choral Music Competition in Námestovo (2009).
She has been a jury member in the International Competition “Saint Petersburg in the Mirror of the World Music Culture” (2004, 2006), Interkultur International Anton Bruckner Choir Competition (2013, Linz, Austria) and the 8th World Choir Games (2014, Riga, Latvia), IV International Choir Competition “Voices for Peace”; Estonian Female Choirs Competition (2018, Tallinn, Estonia), Choir Competition of Germany (2018, Freiburg, Germany); International festival “Riga Symphony” (2018, Riga, Latvia), Latvian Choir Competition etc.
Published a monograph Conducting Methodology (2012), choir music CDs, DVDs – Balta. Pearls; Peteris Vasks. Our Song; Latvian Choral Music; The Loving Ones; Sparks of Jazz; Meditatio Adventus; Sparks of Light; Upwards; The Day is Dawning.