Latvia Honours Composer Mārtiņš Brauns With Memorial Concert at University Hall
A concert in memory of composer Mārtiņš Brauns took place on 3 October in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia. He would have turned 75 this autumn and died five years ago.
A concert dedicated to the memory of Latvian composer Mārtiņš Brauns (1951–2021) was held on 3 October in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia in Riga. He would have turned 75 this autumn, and five years have passed since his death. Brauns was born on 17 September and died on 24 November.
According to the source, the event was conceived not as a traditional evening of reminiscence but as a lively, musically rich concert. Several conductors and ensembles took part to honour the legacy he left behind.
A wide creative range
Brauns' work spans many genres: rock and pop music, choral songs, and music for theatre and film. From 1978 to 1986 he was the leader, keyboardist and main composer of the rock band "Sīpoli". Several of his pieces, such as "Daugaviņa", "Saule, Pērkons, Daugava" and "Dvēselīte", mean more to Latvians than ordinary songs. His contribution to Latvian film music is regarded as especially significant.
A writer's recollections
Writer Otto Ozols, author of the book of conversations "Saule. Mārtiņš. Daugava. Par dzīvi un mūziku" (Sun. Mārtiņš. Daugava. On Life and Music), recalled that Brauns composed the music for Juris Podnieks' documentary "Vai viegli būt jaunam" (Is It Easy to Be Young?). By Ozols' account, around fifty thousand people watched it on the day of the composer's death. Brauns wrote the soundtrack for almost all of Podnieks' films and took the director's death very hard.
Ozols also noted that the composer wrote music for roughly two hundred theatre productions, including "Daugava", staged at Valmiera Theatre by director Maculēvičs, and "Mauglis". Brauns also composed the music for the film "Puika", based on Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš' "Baltā grāmata".
