Biography
Reinis Zarins’ playing has been described as “electrifying”, with “unerring judgment” (International Piano Magazine), while boasting “magnificent tone” (Diena) and “thrilling clarity” (Boulezian).
Reinis has studied music and piano performance in J.Mediņš and E.Dārziņš music colleges (Latvia), J.Vītols Latvian Music Academy, Yale University School of Music and Royal Academy of Music, London. He has won top prizes in eleven international competitions, including first prizes in B.Smetana International competition (Czech Republic), Jaques Samuel Piano Competition (UK), and “Brother and Sister” piano-duo competition in St.Petersburg, (Russia). His main tutors have been Boris Berman, Christopher Elton, Raffi Kharajanyan and Renē Salaks; other formative influences are Claude Frank, Pascal Devoyon, Pierre Boulez, Peter Frankl, Ann Schein, Richard Goode, Jesse Levine, Tokyo and Vermeer string quartets.
As an international artist, Reinis performs on both sides of the Atlantic, and recently also in South Africa. Exhilarated audiences have heard him as a recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestras in the Baltic States, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and United States, in such venues as Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Weill Recital Hall and Steinway Hall in New York, London’s Wigmore Hall and St. Petersburg’s Glazunov Hall. Festival residencies include Lucerne Festival, Bath MusicFest, Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk&Norwich Festival (UK), MasterWorks, Crescendo and Holland Music Sessions. Collaborations with P.Boulez, P.Eötvös and Ensemble Intercontemporain have strengthened Reinis’ interest in the contemporary repertoire and its relationship with the classics.
Reinis Zarins is the recipient of M&D Whyte, E.B.Storrs, B.Simonds, G.W.Miles, Adams’, H.Day and J.Burgess scholarships. Presently, he resides in London with his wife and two children.