Shimkus plays Shimkus Vestard Shimkus

• Vestard Shimkus (b. 1984): Concerto No. 1 for Piano and String Orchestra Dedicated to the Bothersome Man:
• 1 Shimkus: Concerto No. 1 for Piano and String Orchestra Dedicated to the Bothersome Man: I. 11:09
• 2 Shimkus: Concerto No. 1 for Piano and String Orchestra Dedicated To The Bothersome Man: II. 04:03
• 3 Shimkus: Concerto No. 1 for Piano and String Orchestra Dedicated to the Bothersome Man: III. 06:56
• Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano:
• 4 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: I. Flood Gates 02:03
• 5 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: II. Snakes 01:06
• 6 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: III. Silverdark Trees 03:08
• 7 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: IV. Floating Stars 04:20
• 8 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: V. Tsunami 01:52
• 9 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: VI. The Forgotten Dream - Dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach 04:19
• 10 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: VII. Parallel Dream-time 02:44
• 11 Shimkus: Dreamscapes. Nine Etudes for Piano: VIII.- IX. Reality - Bullets 05:45
• 12 Shimkus: Gates of Destiny for Piano and Symphony Orchestra 06:43
• Total Runtime 54:08

Info zu Shimkus plays Shimkus

Vestard Shimkus was born into an intelligent and musical family. His father, Gunārs Shimkus, played in the Katedrāle art-rock group together with composer Vilnis Šmīdbergs. His mother, Iveta Shimkus, is a poet and literature teacher. His younger sister, Aurēlija Shimkus, is a pianist. And Shimkus himself has been married to singer Elīna Shimkus since 2012. In interviews, Shimkus has also always stressed the importance of the support he has received from his family, which helped him while studying abroad and as he launched his career. He has won an impressive number of awards, including the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona in 2009 and the similarly prestigious Los Angeles International Liszt Competition seven years earlier. The list of musicians he has studied under at academies and masterclasses would be similarly long and include Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid, Vadim Sukhanov in Munich and Daniel Pollack in Los Angeles. [..]

First of all, it is for good reason that Šimkus calls himself a romantically thinking and feeling artist, and therefore the music he creates echoes the metamorphoses of turbulent imagination and vivid characters in the music of composer-pianists Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninov. Second, virtuosity is an integral part of Romantic music, and here Šimkus fully realises his pianistic potential – the texture of the instrument sparkles with ever new variations, waves of rhythm and harmony crashing against each other. Third, Shimkus’ predecessors reacted very harshly to empty, meaningless virtuosity, and so he has also found room in his music for contemplation, meditation, lyrically serene moments and quiet observation.

Vestards Šimkus, piano
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Atvars Lakstīgala, conductor

Vestards Šimkus
Described as "a phenomenon" (conductor Paavo Jarvi), "superb" (American Record Guide) and "inspired" (BBC), pianist, composer and improviser Vestard Shimkus (born 1984, Latvia) has also been called "one of the greatest pianists of the young generation" ("Piano News", Germany).

Being the 1st-prize-winner of several competitions, including the Maria Canals International Piano Competition (Spain, 2009), he began to gain an international recognition after his performances with BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de France as well as after performing at Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Kissinger Sommer, Bergen and Lockenhaus festivals.

As a pianist, Vestard Shimkus is particularly interested in the music written within the last 150 years. In addition, he occasionally performs entirely improvised solo concerts inspired by jazz, contemporary classical music, film music, early music and folk music.

Likewise, he is also an accomplished composer - he has written two piano concertos and a number of solo piano and chamber music works some of which have been published by "SCHOTT", as well as music for cinema and theatre. In 2016, his original orchestral score for the movie "Ausma" ("Dawn", 2015, directed by Laila Pakalniņa) received the highest prize awarded in the Latvian cinema - "Lielais Kristaps" Latvian Film Festival Award. He received another "Lielais Kristaps" award for his second film score written for the movie "Breathing Into Marble" (aka "Breaking Into Marbles"/ "Kvėpavimas į marmurą"/ "Elpa marmorā", 2018, directed by Giedrė Beinoriūtė) in 2018. He has also been awarded with "Lotto-Förderpreis des Rheingau Musik Festivals" (Germany, 2014) as well as nominated for the "International Classical Music Award" (2013) and awarded with TOYP (Ten Outstanding Young Persons) award of Latvian Junior Chamber International (2016).

Vestard Shimkus began his piano studies at age of five in Riga and subsequently studied in Los Angeles, Madrid and Munich with Dmitri Bashkirov, Claudio Martinez Mehner, Daniel Pollack and Vadim Suchanov. He has also studied composition with Pēteris Vasks.

Shimkus has released ten albums.

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