Tālivaldis Ķeniņš ((1919–2008) is one of Latvia’s most important composers, an individual inclined to Neoromanticism, plain-spoken, and full of vitality, in addition to being a composer of great technical virtuosity. Born in Latvia, educated in France, he lived the remainder of his life in Canada.

Ķeniņš’s body of work comprises mainly instrumental music including eight symphonies, symphonic miniatures, more than ten instrumental concertos, an impressive array of chamber music, piano, and organ works, as well as solo and choral pieces, three cantatas, and an oratorio.

His abilities, knowledge, and talent bloomed at the Paris Conservatory which he attended after fleeing Latvia shortly before the second Soviet invasion, along with thousands of other members of the Latvian intelligentsia.

His schooling in Grenoble and later studies in Paris permanently imbued his signature style with a Cartesian attitude. He came to believe that truth and value only come through that which is constructed with the utmost logic and rationality. A laconic style of expression becomes his motto, and at his core he remained a Latvian composer and not a French composer.

Tālivaldis Ķeniņš wrote eight symphonies – the first when he was forty years old and his eighth at the age of sixty-seven. His second is known as the Sinfonia concertante while Ķeniņš named his last one the Sinfonia concertata. Thus Ķeniņš’s concerto also happily entered his symphonies. The composer acknowledged that there is little use for new symphonies in the twentieth century for they are rarely performed, yet he does like to write them.