Arturs Maskats

Arturs Maskats is one of Latvia's most successful contemporary composers, with a long career stretching back to Soviet days. His orchestral composition, Tango, has been played internationally. Maskats wrote several major compositions, including Playlist (1979) and the Variations for piano (1980), while still a student. From 1993 to 1996, Maskats served as chair of the Latvian Composers Union. In 1996, Maskats became the artistic director of the Latvian National Opera, remaining in that post until 2013. Many of his best-known works date from this period. His Tango for orchestra has been especially successful; it was played by the Vienna Philharmonic under conductor Andris Nelsons at the orchestra's annual Summer Night Concert in 2022. A number of Maskats' works were issued by the Ondine label in 2023.