Over the years, composer Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946) has acquired international fame by artfully employing elements of Minimalism, chance music, and folk music from his homeland, Latvia. The première of his Hymnus tonight occurs with the specific request not to provide a program note, so that the audience may find its way through the music without a preexisting idea.

– Gregg Wager is a composer and critic. He is author of Symbolism as a Compositional Method in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has a PhD in musicology from the Free University Berlin and a JD from McGeorge School of Law.