About
Auznieks’ quintet Piano was featured in The New York Times among the week’s best classical music moments. His opera NeoArctic, co-written with British techno producer Andy Stott, won Danish Reumert Prize and received stellar reviews in Danish press. It will have its American premier at The Kennedy Center in February, 2019. Auznieks is a recipient of the Latvian National Grand Music Award for his half-an-hour chamber orchestra piece Fire and Rose, and the winner of Aspen Music Festival’s Jacob Druckman Prize.
His music has been performed at The Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), The Royal Danish Theatre, Beijing National Arts Centre, Shanghai City Theatre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, The Kitchen (NYC), National Sawdust (NYC), Southbank Center (London), Riga Russian Theatre (Latvia), Chassé Theater (The Netherlands), Cultuurcentrum Hasselt (Belgium), Théâtre De Nîmes (France), Théâtre Maisonneauve (Montreal), Korzo theatre (Holland), Nutshuis (Holland), Riga Russian Theatre (Latvia), and featured in Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Holland), American Music Festival (Albany, NY), MATA 2017 (NYC), the NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists (NYC), Arctic Arts Festival (Norway), European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 Festival (Denmark), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), and Music From The Angel Fire (NM). He has also worked with Latvian Radio Choir, Sandbox Percussion (NYC), David Kweksilber Big Band (Holland), Latvian Radio Big Band, Antico Moderno (Boston), Yale Philharmonia, Slagwerk Den Haag (Holland), Orkest de Ereprijs (Holland), Maveric Brass Quintet (Australia), Curtis Brass Project (Philadelphia), New York based pianists Robert Fleitz and David Fung, and guitarist Jiji. His piece for Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra was commissioned by Aspen Music Festival and Robert Spano; it was premiered by Patrick Summers. Other recent commissions include pieces for Latvian Radio Choir, Albany Symphony musicians (NY), and Yale Percussion Group, and two concert-length works: And Flowers Showered, a massive 100 minutes long exploration of self and space through sound for Contemporaneous (NYC) and a 33 minute piece for Sinfonietta Riga (Latvia).
Auznieks’s I Exist As I Am, broadcast on classical music radios worldwide, represented Latvia at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Finland. Currently pursuing a Doctoral degree at the Yale School of Music with David Lang and Aaron Kernis, his most recent recognitions include a scholarship from American Academy of Fontainebleau, fellowships from Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Bennington Chamber Music Conference and Aspen Music Festival, Yale’s Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Memorial for best piece in contrapuntal style and The Woods Chandler Memorial Prize for best large-scale work. He is also one of the winners of The Chicago Ensemble’s Discover America XI and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra competitions.
He currently teaches Hearing and Analysis at the Yale School of Music.
