Biography
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Born
22 April 1919
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Born In
Liepāja, Latvia
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Died
21 January 2008 (aged 88)
Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (b. Liepaja, April 22, 1919 - d. Toronto, January 21, 2008) was a Canadian composer born in Latvia.
Kenins's father was a lawyer, poet and government official, and his mother was a journalist. He first began playing piano at the age of five, and his first compositions followed at age eight. Initially, he studied to be a diplomat at the Lycee Champollion in Grenoble, but moved to Riga between 1940 and 1944, studying composition and piano under Joseph Wihtol. He then studied at the Paris Conservatory under Olivier Messiaen and others from 1945 to 1951, and won first prize there for his Cello Sonata. In 1951 his Septet was performed at the Darmstadt New Music Festival, conducted by Hermann Scherchen; that same year he married Valda Dremaine, moved to Canada, and was named organist at the Latvian Lutheran St. Andrews Church in Toronto. In 1952 he began teaching at the University of Toronto, where he taught for 32 years. Canadian musicologist Paul Rapoport has credited Kenins with introducing many European idioms to Canadian art music in an era when many of its composers remained solidly influenced by British models. Among his students were Edward Laufer, Walter Kemp, Bruce Mather, Imant Raminsh, Arthur Ozolins, Tomas Dusatko, James Rolfe, and Ronald Smith.
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