Vestard Shimkus

Vestard Shimkus – Debussy: Préludes, Livres 1 & 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:20:12 minutes | 578 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ARTALINNA

Vestards Šimkus begann mit fünf Jahren Klavier an der Musikschule Emīls Dārziņš in Riga zu lernen. Später waren seine Lehrer Dmitri Alexandrowitsch Baschkirow and Claudio Martínez Mehner in Madrid, Daniel Pollack in Los Angeles, Vadim Suchanov in München. Sein Kompositionslehrer war Peteris Vasks. Er gehörte zu den Meisterklassen unter anderem von Lazar Berman, Peter Frankl und Igor Zhukov.

Er wirkte seit 1998 in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten. Er arbeitete dabei bisher unter anderem mit dem BBC Philharmonic, dem Orchestre National de France, der Tschechischen Philharmonie, der Kremerata Baltica, dem Borodin Quartet, der Violinistin Isabelle van Keulen und der Nordwestdeutschen Philharmonie zusammen. In Deutschland trat er beim Kissinger Sommer und dem 17. Usedomer Musikfestival in Erscheinung.

Einige seiner eigenen Kompositionen erschienen bei Schott Music.

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Vestard Shimkus – Drops of Light (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:55 minutes | 784 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ARTALINNA

For his sixth collaboration with the [French] label Artalinna, Vestard Shimkus invites us to discover an eclectic selection of his works for solo piano. A constant improviser, the Latvian pianist defines composition as a dream and thought in motion. These twelve pieces – which over time have become genuine written scores – were created during concerts, during which the pianist improvised, taking the listener on a journey to the core of his thoughts and meditations. Vestard Shimkus loves long ballads, immersions in nature, and especially the sunlight radiating from the majestic plains of Northern Europe. The twelve compositions, with their rather meditative character and their broad structural lines, bear direct witness to the pianist’s bubbling creativity during his daily contemplations.

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Vestard Shimkus – Chopin: 4 Ballades, 3 Nocturnes Op. 9 & Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:14:34 minutes | 797 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ARTALINNA

In September 2017, during the Brussels Chopin Days, the annual concert season entirely dedicated to the music of the Polish composer, Vestard Shimkus gave a recital that unveiled his irrefutable and oh so personal sense of construction, combined with a narrative power as rare as it is spellbinding, thus confirming his place at the apex among the most striking pianists of the new generation.

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Vestard Shimkus – Shimkus plays Shimkus (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:42 minutes | 897 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SKANI

Celebrated Latvian pianist Vestard Shimkus releases world premiere recordings of his own works performed with Liepaja Symphony Orchestra in this new studio recording.
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