Ivars Galenieks

Ivars Galenieks was born in 1952 in Riga, Latvia (former USSR). He started to learn piano at the age of six and then took piano and theory lessons at Pavila Jurjāna Bērnu Mūzikas Skola. He took oboe lessons at Emīla Dārziņa Music School for two years. However he had to stop the practice on the oboe as the infamation of the triple nerve affected the compression of the lips. Ivars studied double bass at Jāzepa Mediņa Mūzikas Vidusskola and then to the Cēsis Music school. His double bass teacher Igors Graps was actually a cello player and gave deeper understanding of the music of J.S.Bach. The studies followed in the Latvian State Conservatoire on the double bass tutored by Heinrihs Sokolovs and Sergejs Brīnums. He has worked as a pianist in a sports school for art gymnasts. Also Ivars worked as an organist in a church and a choire conductor. Further jazz studies took him to the Denmark to the Niels Henning Oersted Pedersen masterclass and advices from Major Holley. After graduating the Cēsis Music School Ivars Galenieks started to work in the State Operetta Theatre as the orchestra musician. This page in his musician's carreer did not last long as Ivars was offered work with the group organised by well known Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls. It was performing sole the songs of the composer (who was also an acknowledged jazz pianist and band leader). in 1983 Ivars joined Latvian State Symphony Orchestra under the conductor button of Vasily Sinaisky where he worked until 1993. After moving to the United Kingdom in 2003 he plays with a variety of classical orchestras including Mozart Orcestra, St Thomas Academy, Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, The Greshams and differnt choral societies in Norfolk. At present he is the principal bassist of the Norwich Philarmonic Society orchestra. Ivars Galenieks was 15 when he first time heard live jazz and straight away fell in love with it. The two jazz ensembles making a rare performance in Riga made this deep impression on the young musician - Kunsman quintet and Alexey Kozlov quartet. "When I went outside after the concert, my feet were litterally jumping. I felt indesrcribable happy. From the same moment I wanted to become a jazz musician. That was something my musicians body and soul were lacking before." The next big task was to get access to the jazz information. Ivars used any available sources - The Voice of America Jazz Hour by Willis Cannover, frequently interrupted by Soviet Army radio frequency distortions, and access to a very limited amount of LPs available in private collections. The most invaluable support to obtain the jazz recordings he received from a big jazz fan and collector Martins Saulspurens. After years of listening to the best jazz musicians and learning from them Ivars Galenieks spent several years of dedicated jazz studies on the double bass, sold his electric bass, withdrew himself from working with the pop and rockmusic playing bands. "Some my coleagues told that I am crazy. I never regret for a second my choice between electric and double bass. I have played with many great musicians." 1981 was the year when Ivars started to be heard in public. The local musicians invited him to play with them. They were Vladimir Vainer quartet, Raimonds Raubiško Trio, later Alexander Smirnov Trio and Egils Straume Trio. He received regular invitations to participate in the jazz festivals in former Soviet Union. "I was very curious about everything related to the jazz and jazz musicians. So in my first trip to the jazz festival in Krasnoyarsk I went a week earlier and following the invitation by the pianist Igor Dmitriev, stopped at his house. We found common language and that became a axle of our collaboration in the jazz festivals for coming years." "I had a privilege to play with great musicians. Amongst them I can name Frank Foster, Peter King, Julian Joseph, Stan Sultzman, Christian Van der Goltz, Toshihisa Morita, Ted Curson, Czeslav Bartkovski, Janusz Muniak, Georgy Garanyan, Scott Hamilton, Mike Del Fero, Tina May, Igor Dmitriev, Barbara Dannerlein, Frank Mantooth, Igor Butman, Danny Gottlieb, Valentina Ponomaryova, Anatoly Vapirov, Vladimir Tarasov, Alan Barnes, Larisa Dolina, Miguel Martin, Anita Wardell and many many others." In 1988 record label Melodija published an original LP of Ivars Galenieks "Transsiberian Express". It was recorded during the Riga Jazz Festival in collaboration with pianist Igor Dmitriev from Siberia, saxaphonist Anatoly Vapirov from Bulgaria and Latvian drummer Māris Briežkalns. In 1984 Raimonds Raubiško Trio recorded an album Images Of Ancient Egypt in the Melodija Riga studio and published by same name label. In 1980's Ivars was working with many Soviet Avant-Guard musicians. One of them was Anatply Vapirov, composer and saxophonist from Bulgaria. The first CD Ivars Galenieks recorded with Briežkalns Galenieks Smirnovs Trio "Rainy Day" n 1998 Ivars recorded with Latvian vocal group Assembly Singers CD "Rīga Dimd" - Latvian folk song arrangements. In 1999 Norwegian guitarist and composer Joern Skogheim recorded the CD album "Joy" with Latvian jazz musicians with following concert tours in Norway and Latvia. In 2010 Monk Inc band recorded an album "Propensity" with music of Thelonious Monk, with no piano.