Ēriks Ešenvalds | 1.06.2026

Ēriks Ešenvalds is amongst the most sought-after composers working today. Widely performed and recorded, his works span choral, orchestral, stage, and film. Ēriks is a popular speaker, which he often combines with leading masterclasses and conducting.

Ēriks studied at the Latvian Academy of Music where he now teaches. He was a member of the Latvian State Choir and Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge.

His music has been performed at many notable venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, The Concertgebouw, the Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Gewandhaus, Musikverein, NCPA Beijing, Tokyo Opera City, and Sydney Opera House.

Ēriks’ large-scale premieres include Lakes Awake at Dawn for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Pleiades for the Grant Park Music Festival, A Shadow for the BBC Proms, Dreams Under Your Feet for the Gewandhaus, and the full-scale opera The Immured for the Latvian National Opera.

Amongst his choral works are The First Tears, Sun Dogs and Legend of the Walled-in Woman for the Latvian Radio Choir, Vineta for the Bavarian Radio Choir, and Seneca’s Zodiac for The Crossing, the frequently performed pieces Stars, O salutaris hostia, and Only in Sleep, and the New York Times-listed Earth Teach Me Quiet.

Ēriks’ sacred works include the oratorios Passion and Resurrection and St Luke Passion, pieces for Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia, liturgical commissions by Trinity College Cambridge and Merton College Oxford, and masses for Christ Church Cathedral Houston and Liebfrauen Zürich.

Amongst his recent highlights are the US and Swiss premieres of his organ concerto Voice of the Ocean with Iveta Apkalna and 

musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, performances of Passion and Resurrection by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Choirs and the Slovenian Philharmonic, Clouds by the Wiener Symphoniker, Fanfare by the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic as well as Stars at the BBC Proms and In paradisum at the Grant Park Music Festival.

Ēriks’ upcoming premieres include Ceremony of Swans, a Musica Viva Australia commission for the Latvian Radio Choir and Genevieve Lacey with performances in six cities across Australia, and the ballet The Girl with the Multicoloured Eyes at the Latvian National Ballet. Podium Music manages Ešenvalds’ commission and workshop schedule. He is exclusively published by Musica Baltica.