Jēkabs Bernāts

Composer, conductor, tenor

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About

Jēkabs Bernāts (*2001) is a Latvian composer, conductor, and tenor. He graduated from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in 2025 with a degree in conducting, studying under Professor Andris Veismanis. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in composition at the same institution under the guidance of Krists Auznieks.Bernāts began his compositional work in the field of instrumental chamber music, gradually expanding into larger forms. His music explores the friction between inherited forms and contemporary expression, engaging with themes such as historical distortion, myth, and identity through a lens that is at once erudite, ironic, and emotionally charged. A particular fascination with the collisions of languages – both verbal and musical – runs through much of his work, where linguistic play, phonetic dissonance, and stylistic juxtaposition serve as tools for both critique and connection. This principle finds a striking embodiment in his 2025 work No rīten aufgemosties, a multilingual quodlibet that playfully deconstructs musical and semantical expectations.A formative chapter in his artistic journey began in 2020, when he joined the Riga Chamber Choir “Ave Sol” as a singer and later as a project manager. Immersion in the professional choral environment led him to explore vocal composition more deeply. Notable works include Sognatori (2020) and Creation of the World: Ovid’s Four Winds (2022), written for and premiered by the State Choir “Latvija” and conductor Māris Sirmais.In 2023, Bernāts was awarded First Prize at the 3rd International Eduardas Balsys Young Composer Competition in Vilnius for his choral favola in musica Historia von D. Johann Fausten, which reimagines the Faust legend through an eclectic musical lens. The piece also earned him the 2024 Latvian Choral Music Award for Best New Choral Composition. These recognitions led to a series of commissions from the Riga Chamber Choir “Ave Sol”, with premieres in 2024 and 2025.Since 2025, Bernāts has been a tenor with the Latvian Radio Choir under the direction of Kaspars Putniņš. In the 2025/26 season, he also joined the Mixed Choir “Sōla” as a conductor and established his own ensemble, the Mixed Choir “Atpuhta”.

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