The Latvian percussionist Juris Azers has rapidly proven himself as a brilliant soloist, chamber musician and author of conceptual, gripping concert programs. He involves himself in multi-disciplinary collaboration with other arts, performance and promotion of newly written music. Currently, he studies percussion at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.
Juris received his musical education at the “Emīls Dārziņš” Music School (Riga) with Dzintra Knābe, at the LUCA School of Arts, “Campus Lemmensinstituut” (Leuven, Belgium) with Ludwig Albert, Lin Chin Chen and Luk Artois, and at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” (Berlin) with Li Biao, Rainer Seegers and Franz Schindelbeck. He has improved his skills with such percussion greats as Pius Cheng, Jonathan Haas, Emanuel Sejourne, She-e Wu, Frederic Macarez, Ludwig Albert, Eriko Daimo, Axom Duo, Andrei Pushkarev, Michael Burritt and others.He is a laureate of international competitions, which include Universal Marimba Competition, Belgium 2017 (semi-finalist), International Percussion Competition, Italy 2012 (1st prize) and 4th International Percussion Competition of Jonas Talocka, Lithuania 2011 (3rd prize).
In 2013, Juris received an award from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia for musical achievements.
Juris has performed as a chamber musician with the Modern Art Ensemble, the Reinhard Toriser’s Brasscussion ensemble, the Belgian Marimba Group and the Li Biao percussion ensemble
With percussionist Minhye Ko he played live at the RBB Kulturradio in the broadcast “Die Absolventen“ and also at the Concert of Excellence under the patronage of Daniel Barenboim in der Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin.
In the past two years, Juris and the Latvian percussionist Guntars Freibergs have actively performed original chamber music for percussion duo. Most notable was their concert «Texture of Groove», dedicated to Alejandro Viñao, which they performed at the Contemporary Music Festival Arena (Riga). Their performance was nominated for the Grand Music Award 2018, the highest music award in Latvia, for Outstanding Ensemble Work. They also participated at the Modern Music Festival “deciBels” (Riga), playing newly written works by Latvian composers. Juris is a member of the ensemble Unitedberlin under the artistic director Vladimir Jurowski, having performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Beethoven Festival in Bonn and “Drugoe Prostranstvo” Festival in Moscow.
His multidisciplinary collaborations include a project with the Berlin-based director Margo Zalite in a Fluxus nano-opera performance “At Home/Not at Home”, presented at the Latvian National Art Museum as part of the travelling Exhibition PORTABLE LANDSCAPES.
He has gained orchestral experience with Sinfonietta Riga, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, contemporary music ensemble unitedberlin, Berliner Symphoniker, Karajan academy orchestra of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) and has worked with such conductors as Matthias Pintscher, Vladimir Jurowski, Lahav Shani, Shao-Chia Lu and Peter Hirsch.
As a soloist, Juris Azers has performed in South-Korea, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, China and Russia.
Member of