In honour of Mariss Jansons’ outstanding musical legacy in Latvia and worldwide, Latvijas Pasts will issue a postage stamp and a specially designed envelope dedicated to the conductor on 28 July.

These philatelic products will initially be available for purchase at customer service centres and post offices in major cities, as well as through the Latvijas Pasts e-store https://veikals.pasts.lv/. The first-day cancellation will take place at the post office located at 41/43 Elizabetes Street, Riga, on 28 July from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

The new stamp has a nominal value of EUR 2.54 and is intended for paying postage on items weighing up to 20 grams sent within the European Economic Area. The print run is 10,000 copies for the stamp and 500 copies for the envelope. The stamp and the envelope were designed by renowned artist Lilija Dinere.

Mariss Jansons was born in Riga, to the family of conductor Arvīds Jansons and singer Iraīda Jansone. In 1956, he moved with his family to Leningrad, following his father’s appointment as a conductor at the Leningrad Philharmonic. Mariss Jansons studied violin, piano and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory and continued his studies with Hans Swarowsky and Herbert von Karajan at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (1969).

Since 1973, he conducted many leading symphony orchestras in Europe and the United States. He served as assistant conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra (1973–1979) and later led the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (1979–2000), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1997–2004), the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (from 2003) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam (from 2004). As a principal guest conductor, he has been a regular presence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 1992, and has also collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra as a guest conductor.

Mariss Jansons conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s prestigious New Year’s Concert in 2006. In the same year, he received the Artist of the Year Award at the MIDEM festival in Cannes, France, and, together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for the recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13. That year, the Austrian Post issued a stamp dedicated to the conductor.

In 2007, Mariss Jansons conducted Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra before an audience of 7,000, including Pope Benedict XVI, in the Papal Audience Hall at the Vatican.

Among numerous awards, in 2006, he received the Latvian Order of the Three Stars, Second Class; in 1995, King Harald V of Norway named him Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. Mariss Jansons was an Honorary Member of both the British Royal Academy of Music (since 1999) and the Society of Friends of Music (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) in Vienna (since 2001).