Mārcis Kuplais

Mārcis Kuplais was born on May 6, 1983 in Riga, Latvia. At the age of 6 he began to play the cello. Since the age of 7 he has been participating in various festivals, concerts and competitions. He has received prizes in 22 solo and chamber music competitions, from them 7 times the first place. In 1997 and 1998 he got two invitations to the Palace of Riga by president of Latvia Guntis Ulmanis because of his success in international competitions. He has played as a soloist with various orchestras, including with „Academy of St. Martin in the Fields“ (without conductor), Sinfonieorchester Basel (cond. Ariel Zuckermann), Georgian Chamberorchester (cond. Ivan Monighetti), Georgia National Symphony Orchestra (cond. Fakhraddin Kerimov), Zurich Academy Orchestra (cond. Marc Kissóczy), Riga Chamber Orchestra (cond. Normunds Šnē) and others. He has big experience playing in many different chamber music ensembles – trios, quartets, quintets, with piano, organ and choir. He has played chamber music with Mstislav Rostropovich, Ivan Monighetti, Ana Chumachenko, Alexander Rudin, Danjulo Ishizaka, Gerardo Vila, Silvia Simionescu and others. Since the year of 2006 he plays regularly together with pianist Akane Matsumura. He has given concerts as a soloist in Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Georgia, France, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Brazil, USA, South Korea and Japan. He has had master classes with Bernard Greenhouse, Anner Bylsma, David Geringas, Troels Svane, Chiara Banchini, Yosif Feigelson, Māris Villerušs and others. His teachers in Latvia were Lija Sudraba (1989.-1998. in Riga, Latvia) and Arimans Štrauss (1998.-2002. in Ventspils, Latvia). Since October 2002 he has been studying at the Music Academy of Basel under Professor Ivan Monighetti. His chamber music teachers in Basel were Gerard Wyss, Adrian Oetiker, Felix Renggli, Anton Kernjak and others. In July 2006 he got the teaching diploma with marks of “very good” and in July 2008 he got the concert diploma with the highest marks of “excellent”. In July 2010 he finished his studies at the Music Academy of Basel, getting the highly prestigious Masters Degree with Soloist distinction with the highest marks of “excellent”. Since August 2011 he is teaching at the Binningen-Bottmingen (Baselland) music school. He is playing on a French cello, made ~1870, sponsored by Mr. Dolf Teuscher (“Teuscher” chocolate). (www.kuplais.com)