Valdis Butāns Is Going to Be a New Artistic Director of the Orchestra RIGA

Orchestra RIGA has elected its new artistic director – this position from August 2015 will undertake conductor Valdis Butāns.

Valdis Butāns graduated from the Department of Orchestral Conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music with MA degree. In 2005/2006 he improved his orchestral conducting skills at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien) with Prof. Uroš Lajovic. He has participated in master classes with Lutz Köhler, Per Borin, Juozas Domarkas, Yuri Simonov and Zsolt Nagy. Since 2010 Valdis Butāns was the assistant of conductor Karel Mark Chichon at the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and for the 2012/2013 season also at the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrucken-Kaiserslautern. Two seasons he has worked at the Latvian National Opera, conducting opera performances “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La Boheme”, “A Little Sweep” and “Le nozze di Figaro”.

The first collaboration with the Orchestra RIGA took place in 2010, when Valdis Butāns conducted Requiem by W. A. Mozart in the Riga Cathedral. During the last months he has performed two concert programs with the Riga Professional Symphonic Band and interpreted compositions by G. Gershwin, L. Bernstein, M. Ravel, J. van der Roost, R. Pauls, V. Šmīdbergs.