Krists Auznieks (b. 1992, Riga) is a Latvian composer working at the intersection of music, text, and stage. His music has been described as "exhilarating, stunning, luminous" (San Francisco Classical Voice), praised for its "astonishing complexity and beauty" (Broadwayworld) and "extraordinarily imaginative writing" (BBC Radio 3). His quintet Piano was named by The New York Times among the week's best classical music moments. In 2021, he was named Person of the Year in Latvian Culture.

Auznieks composes with the conviction that beauty carries moral weight — that a precisely imagined sonic world can alter the room it enters. His works move between the intimate and the monumental, often shaped by close collaboration with directors, performers, and writers, and animated by a deep engagement with literature, philosophy, and the contemplative traditions.

His theatre work spans opera, music theatre, and dramatic scores developed in partnership with leading international companies. NeoArctic, a climate performance opera created with Hotel Pro Forma, the Latvian Radio Choir, Icelandic writer Sjón, and electronic artist Andy Stott, won the Danish Reumert Award and toured to the Royal Danish Theatre, the Kennedy Center, the Southbank Centre, and the Baltic Sea Festival. Phaedra in vlammen, scored for the New European Ensemble and directed by Ola Mafaalani, premiered at Het Nationale Theater in a production hailed by de Volkskrant and NRC and currently touring the Netherlands. Other stage works include Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Dailes Theatre, Riga). Two new operas are forthcoming: Rosa Alchemica at the Latvian National Opera (2027) and As Below, So Above for the inaugural season of the Riga Wagner Theatre.

His concert music has been commissioned and performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Swedish Radio, Kremerata Baltica, Cappella Amsterdam, the Latvian Radio Choir, and Sinfonietta Rīga, and heard at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Muziekgebouw, and the Beijing National Arts Centre. His debut double album Coiled Horizon (SKANI, 2022) was nominated for three Opus Klassik awards.

Among his distinctions are the Latvian Grand Music Award — of which he remains the youngest-ever recipient — the International Rostrum of Composers Prize, the Danish Reumert Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize, and the Richard Wagner Scholarship from Bayreuth. He has held fellowships at Civitella Ranieri, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and the Cité internationale des arts in Paris.

Auznieks holds a DMA from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Chris Theofanidis, and a BA from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He is Associate Professor and Head of Composition at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and recently served as Chair of the Latvian Composers' Union (2024–2026) and Artistic Director of Baltic Music Days 2026. His works are published by Donemus.