Krists Saržants

KRISTS SARŽANTS is a Latvian composer who takes his inspiration from classical, jazz and film music. His path in music began in 2002 when he started learning classical piano. He began to explore jazz music in 2011 when he started studying jazz piano in Jāzeps Mediņš Riga Secondary Music school, tutored by Raimonds Petrauskis where he also studied composition with Andris Dzenītis. Krists continued his studies at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and currently is at the Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg, Denmark, studying with Danish pianist and composer Søren Møller as his pedagogue. 



During his studies, Krists has also participated in many masterclasses with various jazz musicians, including Roscoe Mitchell (saxophone, US), Jan Gunnar Hoff (piano, NO), Lorenz Kellhuber (piano, DE), Walt Weiskopf (saxophone, US), Michael Arbenz (piano, CH), Carsten Kær (DK) and many others.


In collaboration with Orchestra “Rīga”, “Pieneņu Vīns”, Kenneth Dahl Knudsen (double bass, DK), Rob Duguay (double bass, US), Konstantins Jemeljanovs (trumpet, LV/US), Peter Hertmans (guitar, BE), Ieva Kerēvica (voice, LV), Toms Rudzinskis (saxophone, LV/DE), Dāvis Jurka (saxophone, LV), Kaspars Kurdeko (drums, LV), Artis Orubs (drums, LV), Toms Poišs (bass, LV), Evilena Protektore (voice, LV) and others, Krists has played in Latvia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and other countries.
In his music Krists uses modern classical music techniques, improvisation based on jazz music, polyphonic melodies and film music inspired harmonies. His biggest influences so far have been Philip Glass, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Martin Kuuskmann, Tigran Hamasyan, Avishai Cohen and Taylor Eigsti.

KRISTS SARŽANTS QUINTET was created in 2017, and since then has actively performed throughout the country, as well as recorded Krists’ original compositions and his Latvian folk song arrangements. The recordings were released as a promo album and distributed worldwide during the largest European jazz gathering “Jazzahead! 2017”, as well as included in the official “Jazz in Latvia 2018” CD compilation.