Smite, Gundega (1977)
Biography Works
Foto 1
Gundega Šmite was born on June
5th, 1977, in Riga. She studied at the Jāzeps Mediņš College of
Music (1992–1998), and also at the Latvian Academy of Culture in
the screen and stage theatre art department (1996–1997). In 1998,
she began studies at the Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in the
composition department with Pēteris Plakidis, under whose direction
she received her Bachelor’s degree in 2005 and Master’s degree in
2007.
Gundega Šmite is a member of the Latvian Composers’ Union (as
of 2006), chairman of the board (as of 2009). Since 2011, she has
been editor of the magazine Mūzikas
Saule. She worked as a music theory and piano teacher at
the Ķekavas Music School (1999–2000), and as organist at the St.
John’s Congregation in Philadelphia, USA (2001–2002). She was also
a teacher at the St. John’s Congregation Latvian School in
Philadelphia and later was teacher of music literature at the Riga
Music School No. 3 (2002), and a teacher of composition at the
Daugavpils College of Music (2005-2008).
For her work Pārvērtības
(Transformations) she won first prize at the
Latvian Academy of Music competition (1999) and gained a World
Federation of Free Latvians Cultural Foundation recognition
certificate for her works Atgriešanās
(Homecoming) and Atnākot
(Arriving, 2001). She gained 6th place at the
2005 International Rostrum for
Composers competition for composers younger than
30, 2nd place (no first place was awarded) at the
festival Culturescapes international
young composers’ competition (for the
work Isochasma, 2006), and received the
Tālivaldis Ķeniņš Award (2006).
She took part in the 5th International Latvian Music Camp at
Ogre and also at the Baltic Young Composers’ Mastercourses at
Dundaga, and the Academic
d’Villecroze in France. In the 2005/2006 academic
year, as part of the Socratus
Erasmus exchange program, she supplemented her education
with studies at the J. Sibelius Academy of Music with Veli-Matti
Puumala. Her works have been performed in Latvia, Lithuania,
Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, the U.S.A. and New
Zealand.
