Aigars Meri
1978
Conductor
Aigars Meri received his first musical education in the choir class at the Emīls Dārziņš Music Secondary School, then at the Jelgava Music College. He studied choral and symphony orchestra conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, graduating with a master’s degree. He has furthered his knowledge in master classes with Lutz Köhler, Zsolt Nagy, Per Borin, as well as at the Neeme Järvi Summer Academy, the Bayreuth Opera Festival and the Lithuanian Academy of Theatre and Music.
Since 2005, Aigars Meri has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Jelgava chamber orchestra, and since 2006, the principal choirmaster of the Latvian National Opera (LNO). In 2008, Meri made his debut as LNO conductor for Jānis Lūsēns’ Leļļu opera (Puppet Opera), and in 2010 – as musical director of the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco. With Meri at the conductor’s podium, the LNO has also performed the music of G. Verdi’s opera Macbeth, Bruno Skulte’s opera Vilkaču mantiniece (The Werewolf Heiress), Andris Dzenītis’ opera Dauka and other works.
Since 2014, Meri has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Ventspils chamber orchestra and the Ventspils chamber choir. Under his direction, this choir has been awarded several prizes at international competitions, such as Tallinn 2015 (Estonia), the Nicolaus Copernicus competition PER Musicam Ad Astra (Poland), the S. Šimkus international choir competition in Klaipėda (Lithuania), the Grand Prix of Nations (Latvia) and other competitions.
Meri has staged concert programmes of music from various genres, eras and scales, including musical theatre works such as Raimonds Pauls’ musical Meža gulbji (The Wild Swans) based on H. K. Andersen’s story, and Imants Kalniņš’ musical No saldenās pudeles (From the Sweet Bottle) with lyrics by Jānis Peters based on the play by Rūdolfs Blaumanis.
Aigars Meri received the Latvijas Gāze Annual Award for Opera (2012) for outstanding artistic achievements. Under Meri’s direction, the LNO Choir received the Grand Music award in the category for the year’s outstanding performance (2016) and the Annual Award of the Latvian National Opera Foundation (2018) On January 20, 2024, at the first "Choir Music Award" presentation ceremony, he received the award in the nomination "Choir Leader of the Year".
He was the conductor of the vocal-symphonic music concert at the XXVI Latvian Song Celebration and XVI Dance Festival (2018), and a chief conductor at the XXVII Latvian Song Celebration and XVII Dance Festival Massed choir concert “The Field. The Road of Song” (Tīrums. Dziesmas ceļš) (2023).
The conductor’s purposefulness and inexhaustible energy are characterised by what he said in a 2016 interview with Ventas Balss TV: “We need to try to do as much as possible [in our lifetimes]. We should never stop at what we have achieved.”
Information sources
Aigars Meri. Available: Aigars Meri | LMIC [accessed 10.01.2023]
Aigars Meri. Available: Mākslinieki / Aigars Meri / Latvijas Nacionālā Opera un Balets [accessed 10.01.2023]
Conductor Aigars Meri. Available: Diriģents Aigars Meri / LR1 / / Latvijas Radio (lsm.lv) [accessed 10.01.2023]
Persona kadrā. Available: Persona kadrā – Aigars Meri (VIDEO) (ventasbalss.lv) [accessed 10.01.2023]
Pirmo reizi pasniegtas Kormūzikas balvas. (2024, January 21). Available: https://www.lnkc.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/pirmo-reizi-pasniegtas-kormuzikas-balvas [accessed 26.01.2024]
