Pēteris Vasks was born in Aizpute (Latvia) in 1946. He attended the Riga Music Academy and the Lithuanian Music Academy in Vilnius where he studied double-bass with Vitautas Sereika until 1970. From 1973 to 1978 he studied composition with Valentin Utkin at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga. From 1963 to 1974 Vasks was member of various symphony and chamber orchestras such as the Lithuanian Philharmonic Orchestra (1966-69), the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (1969-70) and the orchestra of the Latvian Radio and Television (1971-74).

Vasks started to become known outside Latvia in the 1990s, when Gidon Kremer started championing his works and now is one of the most influential and praised European contemporary composers.


Vasks' early style owed much to the aleatoric experiments of Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki and George Crumb. Later works included elements of Latvian folk music, such as his gentle and pastoral cor anglais concerto (1989). His works are generally extremely clear and communicative, with a solid and muscular sense of harmony. Lyrical passages may be followed by agitated dissonances, or interrupted by sombre sections with a march-like feel.


Vasks feels strongly about environmental issues, and a sense of nature both pristine and destroyed can be found in many of his works, such as the String Quartet No. 2 (1984). Other important works include Cantabile (1979) and Musica dolorosa (1984) and "Bass Trip" (2003) for solo double bass. He has written five string quartets, the fourth (2003) and fifth (2006) of which were written for the Kronos Quartet.


In 1996, Vasks was appointed „Main Composer" of the Stockholm Festival of New Music. Three times he received the Great Music Award - the highest prize given by the Latvian state in the field of music: in 1993 for Litene, in 1998 for his Violin Concerto "Distant Light" and in 2000 for his Second Symphony. In 1996, he was awarded the Herder Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation Hamburg. Since 1994, Pēteris Vasks has been an honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he was offered membership in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2004, the recording of his Second Symphony and Distant Light was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in the categories "CD of the Year" and "Best Orchestral Work".