Normunds Šnē

Conductor and artistic director of the Sinfonietta Rīga state chamber orchestra Normunds Šnē is one of those Latvian musicians who has focused not only on studying the historical performance of Baroque- and Classical-era music but has at the same time always insistently encouraged the creation of new works and the performance of the newest compositions.

This was already the case when Šnē, one of Latvia’s finest oboists, played with a variety of chamber ensembles and performed as a soloist. With a sense of mission, all of the orchestras he has founded – the Riga Chamber Players (1987–2006), the Riga Festival Orchestra (1999–2006) and now Sinfonietta Rīga – have likewise regularly performed compositions from the 20th and 21st centuries. Šnē is one of the founders of the Arēna contemporary music festival in Latvia (2003).

In addition to having been a conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and a guest conductor with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, Šnē has also produced and conducted performances of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet.

“It seems that precisely conducting has allowed me to understand how important the balance between the rational and irrational really is. You can jump around emotionally all you want, but the orchestra may not respond to you,” Šnē says. “I don’t like ostentatiousness and don’t agree that a conductor must put on a show. A conductor needs to help the orchestra play. I believe that all performances have a message of sorts, but each listener must know how to decipher it for him- or herself.”

Šnē has premiered new works by Pēteris Plakidis, Pēteris Vasks, Maija Einfelde, Juris Karlsons, Vilnis Šmīdbergs, Andris Dzenītis, Anitra Tumševica, Santa Bušs, Linda Leimane, Santa Ratniece, Nic Gotham, Kristaps Pētersona, Oskars Herliņš and many other Latvian composers.

In 2019, Šnē won the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts for the Latvian centenary concert featuring Sinfonietta Rīga and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. He has twice received the Latvian Grand Music Award (1996, 2004), and the same award has been granted seven times to orchestras under his direction: the Riga Chamber Players (1994, 1998), Sinfonietta Rīga (2007, 2008, 2015, 2018) and the Riga Festival Orchestra (2001). Šnē is also the recipient of the Order of the Three Stars.

Šnē has performed with soloists Peter Donohoe, Isabelle Faust, Martin Fröst, Patrick Gallois, David Geringas, Tatiana Grindenko, Natalia Gutman, Gidon Kremer, Christian Lindberg, Truls Mjørk, Crispian Steele-Perkins, Terje Rypdal, Mstislav Rostropovich, Joe Zawinul and other notable musicians. He has performed in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Šnē began studying the oboe at the Jelgava Secondary School of Music and continued in Prof. Vilnis Pelnēns oboe class at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music as well as studying conducting in Imants Resnis’ masterclass. He has also studied with Heinz Holliger, Tamara Fidler, Yuri Simonov and Jorma Panula. Šnē has studied sound engineering at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and has played in the progressive rock bands Salve and Sīpoli as well as the Marana ensemble.

Šnē has produced more than twenty CDs, among them albums released by ECM, BIS, BMG Conifer, Onyx and other labels. In collaboration with the Latvian national record label Skani, he and Sinfonietta Rīga released an album of music by Jānis Ivanovs as well as the Chamber Symphonies album featuring music by Andris Dzenītis, Anitra Tumševica and Linda Leimane.

Šnē is a passionate amateur radio operator and a very talented audio producer.

LMIC 2020