Juris Ķeniņš
1952
Conductor, cello player, composer, teacher, active public worker
Juris Kenins was born in 1952 in Toronto, Canada.
Juris Kenins has been active as a musician and music teacher in both the Latvian and Canadian communities.
A graduate of the University of Toronto with degrees in music and education, he worked for 30 years as a music teacher in Toronto high schools, continuing his career as a cellist, conductor, composer, lecturer, writer, and masterclass leader, and also teaching string quartets at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.
He has chaired the music department of three Canadian Song Festivals, served as Vice-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 13th and 14th Latvian Song Festivals in Canada and the Organizing Committee of the 15th Latvian Song and Dance Festival, and has been Chair of the Board of the Latvian Song Festival Society of Canada since 2010. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Toronto Latvian Concert Association (TLCA) founded by his father Talivaldis Kenins (Tālivaldis Ķeniņš).
He is the Vice-Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the upcoming 16th Latvian Song and Dance Festival in Canada (2024).
Kenins has been the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Latvian National Association of Canada (LNAC) for many years, has served on the Board of the LNAC Education and Culture Fund and is currently a member of the LNAC Council. Juris is the Chairman of the Board of the Cultural Foundation and Council of the World Federation of Free Latvians.
As a cellist he has performed both solo and chamber music in North America, Europe, and Latvia. He has often performed as a conductor: he was the conductor of Toronto mixed choir “Ziemelis”, chief conductor and orchestra conductor of the 14th and 15th Latvian Song and Dance Festival in Canada, chief conductor of the 15th West Coast (USA) Song Festival (he also played chamber music at this festival, performing several of his compositions for the festival ensembles), and conductor of the 14th Latvian Song Festival in the USA (2017). He has been the orchestra conductor at TLCA events, conducting premieres of works by Peteris Vasks (Pēteris Vasks), Talivaldis Kenins (Tālivaldis Ķeniņš) and other composers, and works with soloists Rasma Lielmane and Arturs Ozolins (Artūrs Ozoliņš). His compositions have been premiered in Canada, including at the 13th, 14th and 15th Latvian Song Festivals in Canada, in the USA and Latvia, and have been sung at the regional song festival on 18 November as well as at the Riga Cathedral in Latvia.
In 2016 Kenins participated with a new musical work in the State Academic Choir (SAC) project “Composers for the Centenary”, and in 2017 the SAC commissioned a new work “Missa Brevis Latviensis”, which was also sung by the SAC at 2019 celebrations in Canada. The composition dedicated to the Amber Flute Quartet has been performed in several US cities, Daugavpils, Sigulda and Riga and recorded on Latvian Radio.
Currently, Kenins is a cellist in the Toronto chamber ensemble Empire Trio, participates in North American Latvian chamber ensembles, is a member of the Canadian folk ensemble Poor Tom and often performs in duo with Toronto violist Arturs Jansons.
Continuing his work in the field of education, Kenins is a curriculum advisor for the Canadian Music Centre.
In 2013 and 2018 Kenins sang in the closing concert choir at the Song and Dance Festival in Riga; in 2018 it was together with his wife Mara (Māra) and all three children – Aleksandrs, Amanda, and Daina. In 2018, the mixed choir “Ziemelis” of the Canadian Latvian Centre in Toronto also took part in the XXVI Latvian Song Festival. Kenins will never forget the moving experience of taking part in the 2013 Latvian Song Festival Flag Reception. At the 2014 PBLA Culture Foundation conference in Riga “Latvia Outside Latvia”, he participated as a speaker on the topic “Song Festivals Outside Latvia: the Seed of Creativity in Exile and Diaspora Music”, helped to organise concerts of diaspora music, and himself played chamber music by diaspora composers in Cesis with violinist Laura Zarina (Laura Zariņa) and pianist Peteris Zarins (Pēteris Zariņš). For this conference he restored the long lost 1945 violin concerto by Janis Kalnins (Jānis Kalniņš) for performance in Riga and Cesis with the orchestra of Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, soloist Laura Zarina and conductor Ainars Rubikis (Ainārs Rubiķis). In 2019, he was on the organising board of the PBLA Culture Conference in Cesis and was responsible for the orchestral and choral concerts.
Kenins has been awarded the Certificate of Recognition of the Latvian National Association in Canada, the Honorary Diploma of the PBLA CF and the Order of the Three Stars, IV Rank (2020).
Information sources
Ķeniņš, Juris. (2021, 1. novembris). Biogrāfija. [Elektroniska vēstule Latvijas Nacionālajai bibliotēkai]
