Latvian French horn player based in Amersfoort. Orchestras and contemporary music, teaching, arranging, and software for musicians.
I graduated my Masters at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands, where I studied with René Pagen, solo horn of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and Stefan Blonk of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Before that I studied at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga.
As a freelance musician I have been lucky to play with very good orchestras and ensembles in the Netherlands, Latvia, Germany and Switzerland, among them the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Sinfonia Rotterdam and Camerata Bern. I have attended masterclasses with Radovan Vlatković, Frøydis Ree Wekre, Frank Lloyd, Christian Lampert, Carsten Duffin and Will Sanders.
Orkest De Ereprijs
I am the horn player of Orkest De Ereprijs in Apeldoorn. For more than 45 years the orchestra has been “the living instrument for today’s music”: an ensemble for composed contemporary music that commissions composers to write for it and has premiered over 400 works. Its fixed fourteen-piece line-up of two flutes, clarinet, two saxophones, trumpet, two trombones, horn, tuba, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and percussion lets it meet whatever a composer asks for, from concert works to projects with singers, dancers, electronics, theatre and film.
Experimental music
New and experimental music is where I feel most at home. The horn is usually cast as the warm, romantic voice of the orchestra. In experimental music it can be far more than that: a noise source, a resonator for electronics, a voice that speaks, breathes and breaks. I want the horn to be a full partner in this music rather than a colour borrowed from the nineteenth century, and I am always looking for composers and players who want to explore that with me.
Teaching
I teach French horn, trumpet and music theory in my own studio in Amersfoort, at fanfare K.N.A. in Houten, at fanfare Crescendo in Voorthuizen and in my private practice in Utrecht. The rates on this site apply to the Amersfoort studio only; the other locations have their own.
about the lessons book a free trial lesson
Diversity, flexibility, an open mind
The reason I started my own business is that I realised being an orchestral musician is only a small part of being a musician. In the 21st century the world is changing at lightning speed and the modern musician has to adapt. These are the three qualities I believe a modern musician should have: learn a lot of different things, be flexible, and open your mind to new possibilities.