Andris Veismanis

1965
Conductor, teacher

Andris Veismanis received his higher education at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, where he studied with professors Imants Kokars and Jānis Dūmiņš. In Moscow, he further studied symphony orchestra conducting with Professor Yuri Simonov, and then specialised in early music with harpsichordist and conductor William Christie in Paris.

He recommends that his students take advantage of Erasmus study opportunities to gain a fresh perspective on the profession, get to know the cultures of other countries and learn their languages.

Since 1997, Veismanis has been working at the Latvian National Opera, currently as conductor of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet. He continues to work at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in the choral conducting department. Since 1995, he has been the artistic director and principal conductor of Rīga’s Ave Sol chamber choir, and also since 1995, the artistic director of the Vidzeme chamber orchestra.

Veismanis has collaborated with world-renowned soloists and orchestras such as Elīna Garanča, Maija Kovaļevska, Kristīne Opolais, Aleksander Antonenko, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica and Sinfonietta chamber orchestras, etc. He has performed in the USA, South America, Taiwan, Canada, Russia, Hong Kong and many European countries.

From 1989 to 1997, he led and actively performed with his own chamber choir Sacrum, which became an important driving force for the interpretation of sacred music in Latvia and in 1994 received the Grand Prix in an international competition in Budapest for the recording of Franz Liszt’s music on the album Via Crucis.

He has had other important achievements in his professional work: in 1988, he won first prize at the International Jāzeps Vītols choral conducting competition. In 1993, he received Latvia’s Grand Music Prize for his production of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and in 1998 for his production of George Frideric Handel’s opera Alcina. The production of the latter opera also won a Latvian Theatre Award. In 2021, he received the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and LMT Annual Award for outstanding pedagogical and creative work, as well as the Golden Microphone Award for conducting the classical music album Kremerata Baltica. Marģeris Zariņš.

He will be 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).


Information sources

Andris Veismanis. (2022). https://www.opera.lv/lv/makslinieki/dirigenti/dirigenti/andris-veismanis

Andris Veismanis. (2022). https://www.jvlma.lv/akademija/personals/andris-veismanis

Paradise, where everyone sings so sweetly. Interview with conductor Andris Veismanis. (2021). https://www.diena.lv/raksts/kd/intervijas/paradize-kur-visi-tik-skaisti-dzied.-intervija-ar-dirigentu-andri-veismani-14276677