Jāzeps Vītols
| Jāzeps Vītols | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
26 July 1863 Valmiera  Russian Empire(now  Latvia)
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| Died | 24 April 1948 (aged 84).svg){kind=small} Lübeck Allied-occupied Germany
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| Nationality | Latvian |
| Education | Saint Petersburg Conservatory |
| Known for | Music |
| Spouse(s) | Annija Vītols |
Jāzeps Vītols (German: Joseph Wihtol; 26 July 1863 – 24 April 1948) was a Latvian composer.
Vītols, born in Valmiera the son of a schoolteacher, began his studies in composition in 1880 at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. After graduating in 1886, he remained at the Conservatory to teach composition and reached the rank of Professor in 1901. His pupils there included Nikolai Myaskovsky and Sergei Prokofiev. Vītols was a close friend of fellow professors Alexander Glazunov and Anatoly Lyadov; he would regularly participate at Mitrofan Belyayev's "Weekly Fridays"—regular meetings of prominent Russian composers at Belyayev's home. At the time, Belyayev was Vītols' primary publisher. Besides academia, Vītols also spent time as a music critic for the St Petersburger Zeitung from 1897 to 1914.
In 1918, Vītols returned from Russia to his newly independent Latvia to conduct the Latvian National Opera. The following year, he established the first Latvian Conservatory of Music, which was later renamed the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in his honor, and he ran the composition classes there between 1919 and 1944. His most prominent students during his tenure were Jānis Ivanovs, Ādolfs Skulte and Tālivaldis Ķeniņš. He also helped co-found the Latvian Composers' Society in 1923. In 1944, he moved to Lübeck in Germany and lived there until his death in 1948. His remains were returned to Riga in 1993.
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