Evalds Silins

Evalds Silins (Latvian: Ēvalds Siliņš) (1919 – 2015) was a Latvian composer, teacher and conductor.

Biography
Evalds Silins was born on March 10, 1919 in Kemeri Parish, Valka County of Latvia.

From 1932 to 1938 he studied at the Priekule Agricultural Gymnasium and at the same time he also studied piano at the People’s Conservatory of Cesis. In 1962 Evalds Silins graduated with honors from the conducting department of the Latvian State Conservatory named after Jāzeps Vītols and studied for two years at the composition department with Lūcija Garūta.

For almost 50 years (from 1948 to 1996) Evalds Silins worked as a music teacher at Rūjiena Secondary school. Rūjiena, appreciating his contribution, awarded him the title of Honorary Citizen. There is also a monument dedicated to Evalds Silins in Rūjiena. The author of the monument is Aivars Gulbis.

In parallel with his work as a teacher, Evalds Silins also worked as a conductor outside of school. For more than 30 years he led a mixed choir at Rūjiena House of Culture, the women’s choir “Straume”, the mixed choir “Naukšēni”, various vocal ensembles and a pop orchestra. In 1965 he became the chief conductor of the Valmiera region choirs.

Evalds Silins rests in the Bērtuļa cemetery.

Works
Both, independently and together with other authors, Evalds Silins created about 80 methodological works in the field of music education, including 12 official textbooks, which are still used today. He is the author of about 100 children’s songs.

Awards
•	Certificate of Appreciation from the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia (1995)

•	Golden honorary badge of the Order of Three Stars (Latvian: Triju Zvaigžņu ordeņa zelta goda zīme) (1996)