Liepins, Zigmars (1952)
Biography Works
The composer and keyboard player
Zigmars Liepiņš was born on October 14th, 1952 in Liepāja, to a
family of musicians. He finished the Liepāja College of Music
(1971) and the Latvian State Conservatory (the piano class of Ilze
Graubiņa) in 1976.
At the age of seventeen, he began to compose his first songs,
as well as playing in the Liepāja
group Santa. Regardless of the fact that
he only played in this group for a year, they were awarded first
place at the festival Liepājas
dzintars–1970 for the required arrangement of a
Latvian folk song. While studying at the Latvian State
Conservatory, he performed in many different groups. He was the
keyboardist and song author for the
ensemble Modo (1973–1982, with a
break from 1976 to 1977), also its director (1978–1982). While
serving in the Soviet Army, he directed the
groupZvaigznīte (1976–1978). In 1982,
the group Modo changed its name
to Opus and under the direction of
Z. Liepiņš the group was active until 1989.
At the beginning of the 80s, he gained popularity, composing
a series of hits at the time (Vēl ir laiks [There is
Still Time], Viss kārtībā [Everything is Fine], Ceļojums [A Trip],
Dziesma par rozīti [A Song about a Rose], Sentiments
[Sentiment] and others). In 1983, he gained
recognition with the music for the first musical film from the Riga
Film Studio – Vajadzīga soliste (A Soloist is
Needed). In 1987, at the German Democratic Republic
schlagermusic festival Mensch und
Meer with the song Love
Time performed by Imants Vanzovičs received almost
every possible award. He also had success in
the Mikrofons song
review.
Along with his work in popular music, Liepiņš has composed
music for theatre productions. His work in the theatre genre is
crowned by the rock
opera Lāčplēsis (a Latvian
mythological hero), and the operas Parīzes
Dievmātes katedrāle (The Hunchback of Notre
Dame) and No rozes un asinīm (Rose
and Blood). The rock
opera Lāčplēsis had a political
meaning in the Latvian Reawakening period – its premiere took place
on the date when the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed. The rock
opera was altogether watched by approximately 160,000 people, who
went to the performance as a kind of political
demonstration.
From 1989 to 1992, he was the director of
the Showimpex firm, from 1991 to
1995 the director of the sound recording
studio L&M, from 1992 to 2007 the
president and co-owner of the private radio
station Radio SWH. In the review by the
Music Society, he was acknowledged as the best composer and
keyboardist in 1987 and 1988. As of 1987, he is a member of the
Latvian Composers’ Union.
He has received the Latvian Order of the Three Stars
(category IV) and the Latvian Great Music Award (for the
opera Parīzes Dievmātes katedrāle [The Hunchback of
Notre Dame], 1997). A story about the composer and his
wife appeared in the film
news-reel Māksla (1992, no.
4).
http://www.zigmarsliepins.lv
