Pēteris Aldiņš

(17.10.1953 )

“I really don’t like the idea of a motto – I feel that it keeps me in a confined space. The one thing that I could say is that I recently have been attempting to understand the relationship between silence and sound.”

Pēteris Aldiņš

Pēteris Aldiņš – composer, teacher, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, singer (bass) was born on October 17, 1953 in Willimantic, Connecticut, in the United States. Very early on he was involved in Rota, the Latvian choir his father led, as well as in the children’s and youth musical performances organised by conductor Andrejs Jansons. In 1979, he received a diploma in composition from the Longy School of Music, Cambridge, USA, as well as a master’s degree in composition from Carnegia Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1983, and studied for his PhD in Boston University (1985–1988), where he received an award from the United States copyright association ASCAP for being the best student and taught there for three years. He gained experience with folk music in the New York kokle and singer ensemble led by Andrejs Jansons, and, starting in 1973, created folk music programmes for the ensemble. Starting in 1972, he led the vocal instrumental ensemble Putna piens, and, as a continuation of that work, in 1976, with his brother Mārtiņš Aldiņš, founded and led the vocal ensemble Kolibri, whose repertoire included folk song arrangements by Aldiņš and other ensemble members, and the performances included declamations and singing combined with the sound of ancient folk instruments and modern instruments. P. Aldiņš’ compositions with Latvian folk music themes are unpretentious, though broadly developed. The rustic sound of layers of varied styles of folk music is frequently combined with the tembral colours of electronic instruments. “It seems to me that Pēteris Aldiņš has most fully found his personal style in the arrangement of folk songs – avoiding sentimental touches, in actively pulsating rhythms he brings out the unshakeable force of life in the happiness and sorrow of the ancestors.” (Viktors Baštiks) P. Aldiņš participated in the Latvia Youth Song Festivals in North America, performing, conducting and composing. He was involved in the Boston modern chamber music performance society Underground Composers, and was its president from 1992 to 1994. As a teacher, he taught courses at the New York Evangelical Lutheran Congregation countryside estate in the Catskill Mountains, the Latvian summer school camp Beverīna, and particularly at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1989, P. Aldiņš taught for several months at the Latvian Academy of Music, and gave an author’s concert in Riga. P. Aldiņš teaches music theory and composition at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, USA, and is the organist and choir conductor at the Boston Latvian Diaspora Congregation.