Biography

Baiba Urka studied choral conducting at Rezekne`s Music High School and at the Latvian Academy of Music. She holds a Master’s degree in Early Music Singing from the Latvian Academy of music and another Master’s degree in Early Music - Chamber Music Singing from the Musikhochschule Trossingen (Germany). In 2020, she obtained a Soloist Performance Postgraduate Program in Early Music Singing also at the Musikhochschule Trossingen and finished the AVES (Advanced Vocal Ensemble Singing) program at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

As an Erasmus exchange student, Baiba spent one year in Portugal at the ESMAE (Oporto). She received the Beca Bach 2018 scholarship from the Bach Zum Mitsingen Association, which allowed her to perform J. S. Bach vocal music as a soloist at several concert halls in the city of Barcelona. In 2019, she was awarded with the HfM Trossingen ¨DAAD – Preis¨ and with the ¨Trio Frühling¨ in 2020 won the Prize of the Friends and Patrons of the State University of Music, Trossingen.
 

She studied singing with Gundula Anders and Deborah York, vocal ensemble with Jan Van Elsacker, Paul Agnew, Björn Schmelzer and Stratton Bull and took master classes with Raquel Anduelza and Carlos Mena.

Specialized in Baroque and Renaissance singing, Baiba Urka has performed both as a soloist or with numerous ensembles such as Europäische Hanse-Ensemble, Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya, Vox Luminis, Vocalensemble Rastatt, Ensemble Pretiosa, Arte Minima, Collegium Choro Musici Riga, Latvian Radio Choir, Ensemble Putni, Tenso Europe Chamber Choir or La Cetra. She worked with Jordi Savall, Holger Speck, Andrea Marcon, Kaspars Putniņš, Manfred Cordes and Lionel Meunier, among other directors, in countries like Latvia, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France or Portugal. She is a soprano in ¨Trio Frühling¨, which specializes in repertoire for voice, clarinet and fortepiano and has various programs of Lute songs with Lutenist and Baroque guitarist Miguel Bellas. Furthermore, she performed in the Festival Winter in Schwetzingen the roles of Thetis, Pallas and Proserpina in Schürmann’s opera Die Getreue Alceste under the direction of Christina Pluhar.

At the moment she is teaching Ornamentation in Early Music Singing in Musikhochschule Trossingen.