Folk Musician
Biruta Ozoliņa was born on January 8, 1959, in Rēzekne, Latvia. She received her first musical training at the Rēzekne Music Secondary School and later furthered education at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. She graduated the Piano Studies course under the supervision of professor Ilze Graubiņa, in 1984. The studies awakened her passion for the Latvian and, especially, her native Latgalian regional folk music. This urged her to explore the music sheet and audio materials at the Latvian Academy of Sciences Folklore Department as well as the Literature and Music Museum. She joined folk research expeditions meeting the local folklore gatherers and performers, mostly in Latgale. The most distinguished among the folk singers, Marija Golubova and Broņislava Martuževa, were recorded and their CDs have been released for the general public.
Folk songs performed by Biruta’s grandmother Anna Kozule and her great-grandmother Karuse Arbidāne have been incorporated in the Second Volume of the Collected Works by Emilis Melngailis, ‘Latvian Musical Folklore Materials’. The flame of her devotion to the family tradition – Latgalian folk singing – was significantly ignited by the Latvian National Awakening in the 1980-ies. She performed her first recorded sessions at the Latvian Radio. Biruta has been a member of the folk band ‘Iļģi’ and she has participated in the release of their very first records (‘Orphan Songs’).
Biruta Ozoliņa has gained much acclaim among the music experts and audiences in Latvia as well as abroad – at Kaunas, Vilnius, Tallinn and Kraków folk music festivals. In 2003, Biruta established an ethno jazz band ‘Patina’. Their debut album, ‘Patina’, was released in 2006. The band has since performed at several jazz music venues in La Roshe sur Yon (France), Koktebel (Ukraine), ‘Rīgas Ritmi’, ‘Saulkrasti Jazz’ (Latvia), ‘Suklegos’ (Kaunas, Lithuania) and Flensburg (Germany).