Pēteris Vasks

Latvia’s most prominent composer in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Pēteris Vasks built his reputation on combining his country’s folk melodies and rustic performance techniques with adventurous modernist gestures. He was born in 1946 to a devout Baptist family, and his musical education as a double bassist at Latvia’s most prestigious musical institutions and in its major orchestras unfolded in the shadow of Soviet rule. Since his early compositions of the late '70s and early '80s—such as his birdsong-filled 1977 brass quintet and his elegaic 1983 string piece Musica Dolorosa—his style has thrust mournful melodies from traditional and sacred music into tortured contexts. This approach led to Vasks’ association with the “holy minimalism” of Henryk Górecki, György Kurtág and Arvo Pärt. Best known for his orchestral concertos and choral music, Vasks in his mature compositions used clustering dissonance, indeterminacy and extended techniques to reflect political turmoil in Latvia and ecological decay. This later style is exemplified by his three symphonies (1991, 1998–99 and 2005) and his lauded violin concerto Distant Light (1996–97), with its thick double stops, ethereal harmonics and high-dramatic climaxes.