Indra Riše

"Music is like a feast of the soul. It addresses, narrates, exhilarates... It teaches the language of the souls and teaches understanding. I could be as mute as a fish, I could stop talking, But music would still convey all I have to say."

Indra Riše

Indra Riše (1961) is from Dobele, Latvia. Having graduated from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian State Conservatory as a pianist in 1985, Indra Riše turned her attention to composing music and completed her second round of education, graduating from professor Pēteris Plakidis’ composition class in 1990. In 1993, Indra Riše won the scholarship of the Danish Ministry of Culture and went to Copenhagen, where she continued her advancement in composition with Niels Rosing-Schow and electro-acoustic composition with Ivar Frounberg. Thus she was the first woman in Denmark who mastered a full course in composition. An essential role in her education was played also by: • the Summer Workshop in New Technologies for Music Performance and Composition, University of California, Berkeley (1995); • IRCAM Summer Academy in Paris (1999); • Opera Academy, Oslo (2001); • International Composer’s Center, Visby, Gotland (2004).

Indra Riše stayed in Denmark until 2002, composing commissioned works and periodically working as a music copyist and arranger for various orchestras for the Copenhagen Royal Opera, the Samfundet sheet music publisher, and Danish Radio. Indra Riše has written also piano scores from dramatic-musical works by Danish composers (Ib Nørholm, Erik Norby).

Since 2002, Indra Riše has been living in Latvia and is active as a composer, revealing her locally and internationally polished talent in a comprehensive variety of genres, from songs for choirs, chamber music and electronic works to symphonic and vocal-symphonic scores.

Indra Riše has three dedicated CDs (released in 1998, 2000 and 2013). The compositions by Indra Riše have been played at festivals and concerts in Baltic States, Scandinavian countries, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, USA, and elsewhere, including ISCM (International Society of Contemporary Music) organised festivals in Sweden (2009) and Croatia (2011). As of 2004, Indra Riše is active in society, being a member of the Latvian Composers’ Union Board and leading the Latvian ISCM division. As of 2015, she is a chairman of the board.

REVIEWS /../ Music for symphony orchestra The Green Vision spoke itself: in a living, pictorial and contrast full process, in which at times hissed /../ Wind-machine, howled siren and from the speaking – trumpet came a cough exactly like in the fairy-tale, where it came through radio from the dusty city. /../ Extremely good use of program music! From the concert program’s historical and contemporary authorities The Green Vision by I. Riše left a most bright impression. It is a valuable input to Latvian music, because it stays out from our typical lyricism or pathetic. Inese Lūsiņa, musicologist, Diena, 15.10.2003. Music by Indra Riše is like a whirlpool, where you plunge in to a wild, even out of control, but also great organized stream… Ligita Sneibe, organist, Neatkarīgā Avīze, 24.08.2001. While listening to your music I was very happy, it did an enormous impact on me, one of the strongest in the whole cycle of women composers (just as did LOHN by Kaija Saariaho). Donata Premeru, musicologist, radio-editor, Belgrad, 19.06.2002. letter A certain Nordic angularity, conspicuous inspiration from nature and laconic straightforwardness are however still characteristics features which must be said to come from her Latvian background. She herself strongly feels a tension between a modernist, international orientation and her roots in Latvia’s culture and nature. Ilze Šarkovska-Liepiņa, musicologist, 2000, booklet for CD

Ilze Šarkovska-Liepiņa Photo - Edmunds Mickus © LMIC