From
1993 Normunds changed his status in the LNSO - he took the
post of the assistant and from 1996
to 1998 - the conductor of the Latvian National Symphony.
From 1997
to 1999 he was the Guest Conductor of City of Liepaja Symphony
Orchestra. He also conducted the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber
Orchestra during its tour in Switzerland and France in October
1993. In 1998 he made his debut in the Latvian
National Opera with N. Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade; after
that Normunds was invited regularly: in 1999 season he was
Music Director in Mozart's Don Giovanni staging, in
April 2000 he conducted the world premiere of Latvian composers'
Juris Karlsons ballet The Silver Veil, in 2000/2001
season - Igor Stravinsky' The Rite of Spring, this year - Dmitri Shostakovich's The Limpid Stream.
In July 1998 he made his debut with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra
and was invited again for the 1999 season. Several times
he performed with the Ostrobothnian Orchestra - both as a
soloist
and conductor. With Riga Chamber Players Normunds made his
London debut at St. John's, Smith Square in September 1999
with the first London performance of the works by Vasks,
Maskats, Gorecki and Metcalf, the same program was performed
at The
Vales of Glamourgan Music Festival.
There are
two main trends in Normunds' interests and repertoire - the
Baroque and Vienna classics, the other belongs to the great
composers of the 20th century - Mahler, Berg, Bartok, Shostakovich,
Prokofiev, Lutoslawski, Berio, Lindberg, Reich, as well as
Latvians Vasks, Plakidis, Maskats, Karlsons, Kronlaks, Petraskevics.
In spring 1999 with support by Latvia Universal Bank he started
new project Riga
Festival Orchestra. It performs twice in a year masterpieces
of the 20th century. The first concert was played in March
20th, 1999 and there was G. Mahler's 9th Symphony in the program.
In Autumn '99 Tatyana Grindenko joined the RFO. The real success
came with the third concert in March 2000 - there were standing
ovations after Luciano Berio' Sinfonia (together with Latvian
Radio Choir) and Peteris Vasks' 2nd Symphony. Normunds' skills
as an orchestra-builder is established and recognized by such
musicians as Mstislav Rostropovich, Juha Kangas, Tatyana Grindenko, Steve Reich,
jazz legends Joe Zawinul and Terje Rypdal ("From the very
first rehearsal I found it very easy to work with Normunds
Sne. He seemed to know all the right tempo nuances, all the
right fermatas and so on..."). He can spent lot of time
at the rehearsals and his inclination for the perfection of
the performance is indefatigably. In 2002 Riga Festival Orchestra
was awarded with Latvian Great Music Prize.
Together
with Riga Chamber Players and Riga Festival Orchestra Normunds
recorded CD's for BIS and ECM labels works of Latvian composer
Arturs Maskats and Terje Rypdal. He has performed as a conductor
and oboist in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Russia, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom etc. He had successful
collaboration with, among others, Gidon Kremer, Christian Lindberg,
Peter Donohoe, Ernst Kovacic, Nikolai Petrov, Truls O'Mjork, Lasar Berman, Natalie
Gutman,
Valdis
Zarins, Stanislav Igolinsky, Craig Ogden, Marko Ylönen,
Dieter Flury, David Geringas, Crispian Steele-Perkins. |