“She plays the queen of instruments and is herself a queen amongst queens” wrote Cologne critics in January 2025. Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna is among the world’s leading instrumentalists. Her playing combines virtuosity with outstanding stylistic understanding and emotional depth.

Since her concert with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado in 2008, Iveta Apkalna has appeared with the most internationally acclaimed orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. She has worked with distinguished conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Paavo Järvi, Joanna Mallwitz, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Sir Antonio Pappano, Andris Poga, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the late Mariss Jansons. She regularly performs at Europe’s, Asia’s and North America’s most important concert halls and festivals.

As titular organist at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Iveta Apkalna opened the concert hall in January 2017 with the new Klais organ. Since then, she has presented unique world premières, organ concerts, solo recitals and chamber music evenings there. She has also been Artist in Residence at Neubrandenburg Concert Church with the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 2019. Both contracts were recently extended until 2029/30.

Highlights from recent seasons include concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Sinfonia Concertante, conducted by the composer himself, a tour with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Konzerthaus Berlin; and a residency at the Philharmonie Köln.

During the 26/27 season, Iveta Apkalna will be the ‘palas organist’ at the Dresden Philharmonie and ‘artist in residence’ with the Latvian National Orchestra. In addition, she will give concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Khatchun Wong and perform the world premiere of the new organ concerto ‘Ad Spiram’ by Sebastian Fagerlung with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, as well as national premieres of the work with the Polish National Symphony Orchestra Katowice under David Afkham, the Dresden Philharmonic under Dima Slobodeniouk, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Kristian Sallinen. A tour with the WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne and its new principal conductor Marie Jacquot takes her to eight cities in Germany and Austria. She also gives solo recitals at the Tonhalle Zurich, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Palau de la Música in Valencia and the Konzerthaus Vienna.

Every year, she performs with the leading ensemble State Choir Latvija from her home country at selected venues such as the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the concert halls in Dortmund and Vienna, the Southbank Centre in London, the Prague Spring Festival, the Palace of Arts in Budapest and the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.

Iveta Apkalna’s chamber music projects bring her together with outstanding colleagues such as Alexej Gerassimez, Hilary Hahn, Hakan Hardenberger, Martynas Levickis, Daniel Müller-Schott and Vineta Sareika, as well as with the speaker Harald Schmidt.

Iveta Apkalna is acclaimed for broadening the horizons of organ music through her commissioned works. She collaborates with leading composers such as Bernd Richard Deutsch, Thierry Escaich, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Péter Eötvös, Philip Glass, Naji Hakim, Dobrinka Tabakova, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Pēteris Vasks und Jörg Widmann; a number of works are dedicated to her. A new organ concerto by the Swedish composer Lisa Streich is already planned for the 28/29 season.

Numerous awards attest to her outstanding significance to the world of music: in 2005, she became the first organist ever to receive an ECHO Klassik in the ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ category. She has been awarded the Grand Latvian Music Award four times and has been appointed a Cultural Ambassador for Latvia. In 2018, the year marking the 100th anniversary of Latvia’s independence, Iveta Apkalna was awarded the Order of the Three Stars of Latvia, the country’s highest state honor.

As an internationally acclaimed organist, Iveta Apkalna is regularly invited to inaugurate new concert organs. Most recently, in June 2026, she inaugurated the new organ at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague, and prior to that, in 2023, the new organ at the concert hall of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) in Katowice. In 2019, she inaugurated the organ in the new concert hall of her home country ‘Latvija’ in Ventspils, and in the same year at the Konzertkirche in Neubrandenburg; both were new instruments built by Klais and Schuke. A highlight of 2018 was the inauguration of what was, at the time, Asia’s largest organ (built by Philipp Klais) at the Weiwuying Centre for the Arts in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Iveta Apkalna has already released 15 albums on CD and DVD, and further recordings are planned with Berlin Classics. She is the founder and artistic director of the international organ music festival ‘ORGANismi’, which has been held in her hometown of Rēzekne since 2015.

Furthermore, the documentary ‘Organ at night’ was broadcast on ARTE in November 2025, focusing on the artistic work of this extraordinary musician.

Iveta Apkalna lives with her family in Berlin and Rīga.

[Revised 30 September 2026. Please disregard any pre-existing biographical information. Thank you.]