Andris Rasmanis Biography

Andris Rasmanis, born in Riga, is a Latvian conductor based in Vienna. He completed his Orchestra Conducting Master Degree with distinction from the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, after conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna after QS-World-University- Ranking 2019 is recognized as the best music university in the world.

Rasmanis began his musical education by studying Violin, Piano and Voice. From age 14 to 18 years he learnt Choir Conducting at the Riga Dom Choir School under Valdis Bernhofs. In 2007 Rasmanis achieved his Bachelor degree in Choir Conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Music Academy of Latvia, studying under Jānis Lindenbergs. During his studies in Riga Rasmanis participated with success in several choral competitions in Riga and foreign countries. Until 2007 he worked with the mixed choirs "Dzīle" and "Sudrabe", he has conducted the Orchestra of Jāzeps Vītols Music Academy of Latvia, the youth choir "Kamēr...", the Latvian Radio Choir, the Latvian State Choir "Latvia" and many other choirs.

At the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Rasmanis studied Orchestra Conducting under Uroš Lajovic, Opera Conducting under Konrad Leitner and Choir Conducting under Erwin Ortner. Furthermore, he received important impulses in masterclasses with Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Bertrand de Billy, Ralf Weikert, Toby Purser, Karolos Trikolidis, Achim Holub, Karl Anton Rickenbacher and Peter Gülke.

During his studies in Vienna Rasmanis successfully participated in several orchestra conducting competition. He is a winner of the Young Conductors’ Competition in Abeystwyth(2010) and the 2. prize winner of the Conductors’ Competition with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra(2017)

Since 2018 he is the chief conductor of the Fluentum Orchestra in Vienna.

Orchestras Rasmanis has conducted include the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Silesian Philharmonic, the Rzeszow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jyväskzlä Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Latvian National Opera, the Orchestra Metropolitana Lisbon, the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Meininger Hofkapelle, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, the Orchestra of Landestheater Detmold, the Orchestra of Landestheater Eisenach, the Graz Chamber Orchestra, the Orion Symphony Orchestra, the Timisoara Philharmonic Orchestra, the ASO Vienna and the Pro Arte Orchestra of the University of Vienna.

Since 2011 Rasmanis has led conducting courses in several Latvian towns and worked as a co-author for the book "Methods of Conducting"(2012).

From February until June 2013, he was an assistant conductor to Cornelius Meister for performances of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Latvian National Opera. In summer 2013, 2014 and 2018 Rasmanis was an assistant conductor to Vladimir Kiradjiev for a productions of Verdi’s Otello, Bizet’s Carmen and Giordano’s Andrea Chenier at the Opera Festival Sigulda. In 2014 he was also an assistant conductor to Ivan Fischer at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

In 2014 Rasmanis was a second conductor for the Latvian National Opera’s production of W.A.Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and in 2015 he was invited to conduct W.A.Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte production at the Gütersloh Landestheater, and also different programmes in Detmold, Eisenach and Glasgow.

During the seasons 2015/2016 Rasmanis has conducted concerts, film music and other projects in Riga, Paris, Manchester, Mönchengladbach, Katowice and etc.

In 2017 and 2018 Rasmanis conducted different programmes with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2019 he has conducted performances with the Fluentum Orchestra Vienna and also the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In autumn 2019 Rasmanis will be an assistant conductor to Walter Zeh and Leslie Suganadarajah for the performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg.