Ainārs Rubiķis came to international attention as winner of the 2010 Mahler conducting competition. The Latvian conductor emerged from strong competition to take the prestigious competition’s first prize: “This year, as with Gustavo Dudamel in 2004, we have found an exceptional conductor” observed Jonathan Nott, president of the Competition jury.
In 2011, Rubikis was announced recipient of the second Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and subsequently conducted the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester at the Salzburg Festival to critical-acclaim. He served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre from 2012 – 2014, and last year was awarded a prestigious Golden Mask Award as “Best Conductor” for the new production of Bernstein’s Mass.
Plans for the 2015/16 season sees return visits to Poznan Philharmonic, Queensland Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale d’Ile de France and Orquesta de Euskadi with the Malandain Ballet Biarritz. Debuts include Residentie Orkest and the Bolshoi Theatre with a production of Boris Godunov. Future plans include débuts at Chicago Lyric and returns to the Bolshoi Theatre and Latvian National Opera.

Highlights of recent seasons included debuts with New National Theatre Tokyo and Liceu, Barcelona (Carmen), Oberammergau Festival (Nabucco), Strasbourg Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Heidelberg, Bournemouth, Toronto, Melbourne and Lucerne Symphony Orchestras, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre du Pays de la Loire, at the Edinburgh International Festival with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, débuts with Hong Kong Philharmonic and Brussels Philharmonic, Estonian National, Bamberg Symphony, Budapest Philharmonic and performances of Don Giovanni at Latvian National Opera. He recently conducted La finta Giardinera in Bamberg.

Born in Riga, Rubikis enrolled to study at the Emil Darzins School - Latvia’s leading institution for outstanding young musicians - where he studied piano and violin and also sang in the choir of Riga Cathedral, going onto the Cathedral’s choir school. He later studied at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy for a degree in choral conducting and pursued postgraduate studies in orchestral conducting with Andris Vecumnieks, and also participated in masterclasses with Maris Jansons and Zsolt Nagy. He was awarded Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s prize as best conductor.

From 2000 to 2005, he served as Artistic Director of the long-established Dziesmuvara, the University of Latvia chamber choir, before working as Assistant Conductor and a member of the Latvian Radio Choir from 2006 until 2010. He regularly works with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, the Latvian National Opera orchestra, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and appeared in the 2010 Lockenhaus Festival. In 2008 he was appointed an Assistant Conductor at Latvian National Opera. His credits at LNO include Don Giovanni and Zauberflöte and assisting Cornelius Meister in the company’s acclaimed staging of Siegfried. Future plans include further performances of Don Giovanni at LNO.