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Vestards Šimkus
Vestards Šimkus (''Vestard Shimkus'', born 21 August 1984 in Jūrmala) is a Latvian pianist, composer and Improvisation (music), improviser. He has won several international and national awards, plays classical repertoire, composes music for cinema and theatre, and performs his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations. His younger sister Aurēlija Šimkus also is a pianist. Biography Vestards Šimkus was born on 21 August 1984 in Jūrmala, Latvia. His mother Iveta Šimkus is a published poet and a teacher of literature. His father Gunārs Šimkus used to be an art-rock musician who was active in the 1960s and 1970s and founded the first rock band named ''Katedrāle'' in Latvia. His sister Aurēlija is an accomplished pianist and recording artist. Šimkus started to play the piano in age of 5. From 1990 until 2002, he studied in Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Riga, where his teachers were Ruta Švinka, Ligita Muižarāja, Teofils Biķis and Sergejs Osokins. In 2002/2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jūrmala
Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019, making it the fifth-largest city in Latvia. While Latvia was part of the Soviet Union, Jūrmala was a favorite holiday-resort and tourist destination for high-level Communist Party officials, particularly Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev. Although many amenities such as beach-houses and concrete hotels remain, some have fallen into disrepair. Jūrmala remains a tourist attraction with long beaches facing the Gulf of Riga and romantic wooden houses in the Art Nouveau style. Names and administrative history The name Jūrmala stems from Latvian ''jūra'' ("sea") and ''mala'' ("edge", "side", "margin"), thus "seaside" in English. In 1920, soon after Latvian independence, the town of Rīgas Jūrmala ("Seaside of Riga") was establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
