Vita Kalnciema

Vita Kalnciema was born in Riga and has studied music since the age of six. She pursued her professional training at the Jāzeps Vītols Academy of Music, where she received degrees in piano (1983) and organ (1985) performance. The artist has also studied with Guy Bovet, Lionel Rogg, Ludger Lohmann, Ewald Kooiman, Leo Krämer, Ištvan Ella, Pierre Cogen, Harald Vogel, Bernard Bartelink, Hans-Ola Ericsson and Hans Fagius. Vita Kalnciema has received awards in a number of international competitions - in the Ukraine (1989), Poland (1989), Switzerland (1994) and at the César Franck competition in Haarlem, the Netherlands (1994). She has performed in concert in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. She has performed on a number of sound recordings as part of the series Latvia’s Historical Organs, and she has also performed for radio and television. Today, Vita Kalnciema teaches organ at the Latvian Academy of Music and at the Riga Cathedral Choir School. She is the organist at the Jesus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riga.