KRISTS SARŽANTS

is a Latvian crossover and contemporary music composer and pianist. He started studying jazz music and composition at Jāzeps Mediņš Riga Secondary School of Music with Raimonds Petrauskis and Andris Dzenītis as his teachers in 2011. Already a few years later Krists was playing with some of the leading jazz musicians in Latvia like drummer Rinalds Maksimovs, bassist Reinis Ozoliņš and saxophonist Toms Rudzinskis, performing Krists’ original compositions. Later on he continued his studies at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, studying jazz piano with one of the most fundamental jazz pianists in Latvia, Madars Kalniņš and composition with various musicians, such as Kārlis Vanags and Tuomo Uusitalo. During that time Krists also studied in Aalborg, Denmark at the Royal Academy Of Music with Danish composer and pianist Søren Møller and arranger, composer and double bassist Kenneth Dahl Knudsen with whom he soon after began performing together both Kenneth’s, and Krists’ music.

During his studies, Saržants has had the chance to participate in masterclasses and workshops, working with various artists, such as Roscoe Mitchell, Walt Weiskopf, Joe Morris, Lorenz Kellhuber, Pedro Eustache, Etienne Charles and many others.

Currently Krists is working at one of the leading high schools in jazz music in Latvia – Jāzeps Mediņš Riga Secondary School of Music as a piano and ensemble teacher, accompanist and a principal bassoon at the school symphony orchestra for almost 5 years, being offered a position right after enrolling at JVLMA. He’s led masterclasses in music management and rhythmic music and is active in Latvian jazz music media, consulting and writing reviews for the only digital jazz magazine in Latvia “JAZZIN.lv” and a frequent headliner for UNESCO International Jazz Day in Latvia for the last 4 years. In 2018 Krists was chosen to represent the Music Academy at the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) conference and in 2019 traveled to the USA, representing the school in building a stronger relationship between Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the University of Nebraska in Omaha, NE. Along that, Krists is one of the few initiators and now one of the key members working on Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music Jazz Department’s reform, completely reconstructing and updating it, making a huge step in the Department's 10 year history.

In 2017 Krists’ music was presented at one of the largest European jazz music gatherings “Jazzahead 2017” and was included in the official compilation albums “Jazz In Latvia 2018” and “Jazz In Latvia 2020” amongst some of the best Latvian jazz musicians representing Latvia’s jazz scene in 2018 and 2020.

At the end of 2018, while studying in Denmark, Krists developed a strong relationship with quite a few Danish jazz musicians and since then has strengthened the relationship between Latvian and Danish jazz culture by performing in Denmark and Latvia with Matias Fischer-Mogensen (with whom Krists also recorded his debut album in Latvia last summer) and Kenneth Dahl Knudsen and Daniel Sommer, with whom Krists performed last spring at VEF Culture Palace concert hall, that was also supported by the Danish Culture Institute in Riga, Latvia.

In 2019 Krists began recording his debut album with quite a few renowned Latvian musicians – singer Evilena Protektore, saxophonist Dāvis Jurka, double bassist Andris Grunte, guitarist Mārcis Auziņš, singer Ieva Kerēvica and Latvian National Opera soloist Laura Grecka, as well as drummer Matias Fischer-Mogensen from Denmark and many others. Throughout his career and particularly in creating this album, Krists has collaborated with many musicians from the Latvian National Symphony orchestra, Latvian Radio Big Band and Latvian National Opera. The album “Then And Now” is out now.

In the same year Krists Saržants was invited to be the opening performance for TEDxRiga at the Latvian National Library concert hall. With a sold out hall of over 600 people, Krists shared the stage with many remarkable people – piano builder David Klavins, composers Platons Buravickis and Anna Ķirse, film director Andris Gauja and others.

Last November, while jazz scene in Latvia had fallen to only one consistent jazz club in Riga, amongst only few around the country that time to time hosted jazz concerts, Krists, together with Jūlijs Melngailis, the entertainment project manager at “Jaunā Teika”, began jazz concert series at Minox Cocktailbar, called “Minox Jazz Sessions”, occuring every two weeks. For their 8 sessions in a 120 seat club, almost every concert was fully booked, thus significantly popularizing jazz music and creating concert opportunities for many jazz musicians.

Continuing his creative endeavours, Krists is currently working on a book, compiling information about and sheet music from current significant Latvian jazz musicians to preserve their music for future generations and to preserve Latvian jazz music in general. It’s a project to also popularize original Latvian jazz music in Latvia and worldwide, by collaborating with other schools and culture institutions in Europe and the USA. Hopefully the book will turn into a continuing series.

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