Ēriks Ešenvalds

Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the most sought-after composers working today, with a busy commission schedule and performances of his music heard on every continent. After study at the Latvian Baptist Theological Seminary and the Latvian Academy of Music, he became a member of the State Choir Latvija. In 2011 he was awarded the two-year position of Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Since then Ēriks has won multiple awards for his work and undertakes many international residencies working on his music and lecturing.

Recent large-scale premieres include Visions of Arctic: Sea for Saxophone and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, The Pleiades for Grant Park Music Festival Chicago, Lakes Awake at Dawn for the Boston Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dreams Under your Feet for the Gewandhaus Leipzig, A Shadow for the BBC Proms Youth Choir, St Luke Passion for the Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga, and the major multimedia symphonies Nordic Light and the Volcano Symphony, both premiered in Latvia with further performances around the world. His full-scale opera The Immured was premiered at the Latvian National Opera in 2016 to great acclaim.

His compositions appear on recordings from Trinity College Choir, Cambridge on Hyperion, Portland State Chamber Choir on Naxos, Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga on Ondine, ORA Singers on Harmonia Mundi, and VOCES8 on Decca Classics, amongst others. The most recent release of his choral music is “There Will Come Soft Rains” from the Pacific Lutheran University Choir of the West, directed by Richard Nance, on the Signum label.