After his studies at Yale University and London Royal Academy of Music, Reinis returned to his roots in Latvia where he currently makes his home and where his creative laboratory is.
For Reinis, music serves its purpose best when it can be shared. His wish to communicate through music has brought Reinis to some of the most prestigious concert stages, including London Wigmore hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center and New York Carnegie hall, although Reinis always reiterates that it is the people listening, there and then, that matter above everything else. To that end, Reinis also loves performing in unusual settings, in the woods and meadows, in backyards and tunnels.
His solo recitals often present an overarching theme that ties all its different ingredients into one unified sculpture. Reinis’s musical interests range widely and wildly, from the earliest keyboardists to our current pop stars, but he tests and chooses his repertoire according to a certain intuitive filter which can be formulated as "beauty and truth". As a result, Reinis has developed, over the years, a particular interest in the so-called pilgrim composers — those who seek to express the inexpressible. Next to the great Johann Sebastian Bach he mentions Johannes Brahms, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, John Tavener and several others.
"Music is the only complex form of communication we all understand. In our words, we often stumble and misread one another, but when we participate in music together, we can understand one another, deeper than words go. One of my greatest joys is to make music together with others. In the process, every participant must sacrifice something, but the common gain is incomparably greater than the individual loss."
"Where does our music come from? Does it originate in the mind or in the heart? Does it arise from our past experiences only? Don't we, at times, create music to solidify our visions of something wordless, shrouded in mystery, as yet to come? I think the wonder of Life is right there, at the point of new creation. It is such a happy moment when a composer tells me that they want to create something new, with me as the first recipient. And I am grateful if I am allowed a glimpse into the process of making, a chance to reflect while the clay is still soft — and thus the child is fully theirs… but also ours."
Reinis’s artistic partners have included violinists Gidon Kremer, Viktoria Mullova, cellists Matthew Barley, Ashley Bathgate, Trio Palladio, dancer Kirill Burlov, painter Maryleen Schiltkamp, as well as eminent conductors Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Andreas Spering and Andris Poga. Reinis has performed concerti with London Philharmonic orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Ostrobothnian Chamber orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic orchestra, Moscow State chamber orchestra, and he regularly appears with all Latvian and Lithuanian orchestras.
Reinis has commissioned and premiered works by many leading Latvian composers, including Pēteris Vasks, Andris Dzenītis, Georgs Pelēcis, Rihards Dubra, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Arturs Maskats, Linda Leimane and Andrejs Selickis. Most of Reinis’s discography contains works by Latvian composers, and it gives him great joy when he grasps yet another characteristic of the Latvian DNA through the compositions of his compatriots. For his services to the Latvian culture, Reinis has been awarded with the Order of the Three Stars, and has won Latvia’s Grand Music Award five times. These distinctions are the highest forms of Latvian state recognition.
Away from the piano, Reinis loves to play hide-and-seek with his children, walk in the rain with his wife, run long distances and watch movies. If you see him on the streets of Riga, have a chat.
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