Jānis Liepiņš

Jānis Liepiņš (born August 7, 1988 in Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian conductor. Since 2014, he is the conductor at the Latvian National Opera and Ballet. For the LNO, he has conducted for productions of Il trovatore, Le Villi. Gianni Schicchi, Eugene Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, Scheherezade and Her Tales and La Bayadere; he was the conductor and musical director for the ballet Raymonda and operetta Die Fledermaus.

Liepiņš has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the youth choir Kamēr... since 2012, which he joined as assistant conductor in 2006. With the leadership of Liepiņš, Kamēr... was named the champion of two categories and won the Grand Prix of the Bela Bartok International Choir Competition in 2012 in Debrecen, Hungary. This victory led to an invitation to compete for the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing of 2013 in Arezzo, Italy, where the choir triumphed and won its second European Grand Prix.

He has studied at the Department of Conducting of the Riga Dome choir school and earned two bachelor's degrees – in choral and symphonic conducting – at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Liepiņš has also obtained skills in masterclasses by Colin Metters and during his exchange studies in Berlin under Lutz Köhler.

In recognition of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in 2013 and his successful debuts with the Latvian National Symphony orchestra, Liepāja Symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga, Jānis Liepiņš was awarded the Latvian Great Music Award as the New Artist of 2013, and the newspaper Diena’s Annual Culture Award in 2013.