Hailed as one of the most exciting discoveries from the Baltics, young Latvian conductor Aivis Greters was appointed Assistant Conductor concurrently to two arts organisations last season, Gothenburg Opera and the Orchestre de Paris.
In the 2023/24 season, at Gothenburg Opera he conducts a wide range of repertoire, amongst others Nabucco, Don Giovanni, Der Fliegende Holländer and Tosca. A string of important debuts with orchestras such as the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin will be complemented by return visits to the two leading Swedish symphony orchestras, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Deeply rooted in the rich musical tradition of his home country, in the 2020/21 season Greters debuted as symphonic conductor with the three major orchestras, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Riga Sinfonietta and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. He will return to work with all three of them again in 2023/24. His debut with the Latvian National Opera occurred in 2022 and a return visit is planned for next season. Outside Latvia, Aivis Greters was awarded the second prize of the 2021 Deutscher Dirigentenpreis and conducted WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Gürzenich Orchester in this context.
Greters started his musical career in 2018 as Artistic Director and conductor of the Latvian Youth Choir Kamēr. Under his direction the choir won the Grand Prix of the 50th Tolosa Choral Contest in 2018, the European Grand Prix 2019 in Arezzo and became the first choir worldwide to have won three European Grand Prix for Choral Singing titles. In early 2021 Greters received The Grand Music Award of Latvia in the "Young Artist of the Year 2020" and the "Artistic Bravery and Innovation during COVID-19" categories for projects with the choir at Cēsis Music Festival.
Aivis Greters attended master classes with conductors such as Jörg-Peter Weigle, Steven Layton, Zbigniew Graca, Lutz Köhler, Ekhart Wycik and Alexander Polianichko. Most recently he was participant of the Järvi Conducting Academy at Pärnu Music Festival where he was chosen to also conduct three festival performances, and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich Masterclass with Paavo Järvi where he was awarded the Prize of the Jury.
Greters graduated from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music’s orchestral conducting department led by Professor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš. From 2013 to 2017 he studied choral conducting at the Latvian Academy of Music and further developed his skills between 2015 and 2016 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.