Pēteris Vasks

Pēteris Vasks is a Latvian composer, born in 1946 in Aizpute into the family of a Baptist pastor. He first worked as a double bassist in Lithuanian and Latvian orchestras. His early music drew on the aleatoric techniques of Lutosławski, Penderecki and Crumb, while his later works bring in elements of Latvian folk music and minimalist techniques and often deal with nature and the relation between people and the natural world. Vasks studied double bass at the Lithuanian Conservatory in Vilnius, finishing in 1970, and composition with Valentin Utkin in Riga from 1973 to 1978.