Platon Buravicky

"Beginning during early childhood, music became my faith. At the moment I first touched the keys of the piano, I grasped and felt the power of music: I know that in the 21st century, the profession of Musician must become the dominant profession, the same way that the profession of Militarist was the dominating profession in the 20th century. If war is the path to the death of humanity, then Music is the path to the victory of humanity, the path to life and further development. The composer, and, overall, the musician, have a great responsibility – much like the architect and the builder. However, in contrast with the architect and builder, it is more difficult to evaluate the responsibility of the creator of music, since the result is not seen immediately after the work is completed. Correspondingly, the responsibility of the composer is greater. Ever since I wrote down my first note, I decided that I will do everything to encourage people to listen to Music more often, to be closer to it, closer to victory. I decided that I will do all that I can so that, after the work of the creator of music is finished, people would be able to more quickly appreciate not just how it sounded, but also its responsibility to invest in the formation of a person’s soul and ego. Humanity must open itself to music and find itself within it."

Platon Buravicky

The composer and pianist Platon Buravicky was born on May 10, 1989 in Riga. He graduated the Riga 5th School of Music (1998–2002) specialising in piano (also studying composition with Vilnis Šmīdbergs), and the Emīls Dārziņš College of Music Keyboards Department (2002–2007, studying composition with Pēteris Vasks). He received a Bachelor’s Degree from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, studying composition with Selga Mence (2009–2013), and, under her direction, continues his Master’s studies. As of 2007, he supplements his knowledge with many teachers – he participated in algorithmic composition courses with Achim Christian Bornhoeft, electro-acoustic composition courses with Rolands Kronlaks, composition master classes with Dieter Mack, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Christian Wolff, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, and Ed Benett, and electro-acoustic music master classes with Lamberto Coccioli and James Bullock. His works have received awards at the new composition competition (1st place – 1999, 2007) and at the Pēteris Vasks composition competition (2nd place – 2012, 3rd place – 2014). His music has been performed at the festivals Skaņu mežs, Dominante, Survival Kit 5, Art and Communication, Arēna, Latvijas Jaunās mūzikas dienas, and elsewhere. He has worked as a teacher of music theory at the Jugla School of Music (2011–2013) and as a music teacher at the Riga Classical Secondary School (2011–2014). As of 2013, he is a teacher of composition and music programming at the Jelgava College of Music.

Mārīte Dombrovska © LMIC, 2015