Valdemārs Ozoliņš

Valdemārs Ozoliņš (5 November 1896 Vestiena parish – 15 February 1973, Pueblo, Colorado, US) was a Latvian composer and conductor.

Valdemārs Ozoliņš songs have been treasured by choirs ever since his triumphant debut during the VI Latvian Song Festival in Riga, Latvia in 1926. The author of about 500 songs and several cantatas, Valdemārs Ozoliņš was chief conductor at several Latvian Song Festivals.

Biography Valdemārs Ozoliņš was born November 5, 1896, in Vestiena, in the Governorate of Livonia (present-day Latvia). His parents were farmers. He attended school in Vestiena, enrolled the conservatory of St Petersburg 1914, later in Moscow, and in 1921 the composition and conducting classes of the conservatory in Riga, Latvia, which he graduated in 1931. In Riga he was the substitute of the conductor Teodors Reiters. Valdemārs Ozoliņš song “Papardes zieds” – "The fern flower" (text by K. Krūza) was received very well at the VI Latvian Song Festival in Riga in 1926. He obtained the master's degree in music from the Chicago conservatory, US. Valdemārs Ozoliņš was honoured by the Latvian Culture fund for his solo and choir songs in 1926. He had some involvement with the Baltic neopagan movement Dievturība, where he was the first conductor of the dievturi choir.

He died in exile on February 15, 1973, in Pueblo, Colorado, US. The urns of Valdemārs Ozoliņš and his wife Valija, née Alberts, were buried in Forest Cemetery, Riga, Latvia, on August 20, 1993, next to his teacher, professor Jāzeps Vītols.

To commemorate the 130th anniversary of Valdemārs Ozoliņš, his relative, composer Eduards Ozoliņš, published a new instrumental arrangement of Ozoliņš’s song “Latvija daiļa” in 2026. A digital exhibition was also launched to commemorate Ozoliņš’s life and musical career, as well as to explore the roots of the Ozoliņš family in Vestiena Parish.