We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krists Saržants. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krists below.

Alright, Krists thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think, being in a creative field is a risk itself: the continuous search for stability in a neverending journey. Committing oneself to a career in a creative field is to surrender oneself to uncertainty. To the constant search for acceptance. “Whose acceptance?” you might ask. Well, your own, of course. However, it takes some time, going through your idols and nemeses, friends, and maybe that grumpy teacher, to realize, that the piece that seems to be missing can only be found within. “Will I ever make it?” is something a lot of us ask ourselves. This choice, to pursue a career, a dream in the music industry is the risk I’ve taken. And it’s a peculiar one because ultimately it’s up to us when WE believe it becomes a risk that is worth taking. In the beginning, we’re so sure we see the ending, the finish line, the “once I reach this, I’ll know, I’ve made it” milestone. Only once you’ve begun, you come to realize that it’s all an illusion. Your “finish line”, your fulfillment, it’s a journey, and being present in the journey, embracing it with all its beauty and with all its faults IS the risk being worth taking.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Krists Saržants and I’m a Latvian composer and pianist. Throughout the years I’ve worked with many renowned Latvian and foreign artists and bands, such as the Latvian Radio Big band (LV), Steffen Schorn (DE), Kenneth Dahl Knudsen (DK), Luiz Black (BR), Symphonic Wind Orchestra “RIGA” (LV) and many others in Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, USA and other countries.

My recordings were presented at the “jazzahead! 2017” annual fair and festival in Bremen, Germany, as well as included in the compilation albums “Jazz In Latvia 2018” and “Jazz In Latvia 2020” (both presented at “jazzahead!” as well). In 2019 I had the opportunity to open the TEDx conference with my quintet in Riga and in 2020 I released my debut album “Then and Now”, which was nominated for the Annual Latvian Music Recording Award „Zelta Mikrofons” (“Golden Microphone”) (dubbed “the Latvian Grammy”) in the category “Best Jazz or Funk music album” and am currently working on my second album, inspired by film music, minimalism and contemporary classical music.

I’ve written reviews of albums by multiple distinguished artists – the legendary Latvian pianist Raimonds Pauls, the Grammy award-winning chamber orchestra “Sinfonietta Riga”, British composer and arranger Callum Au, Jelgava Big band, the outstanding pianist Vestards Šimkus and many others.

As a side project I’ve also worked with graphic design, creating CD album designs, social media PR, some of which in collaboration with the Latvian singer Santa Šiller (her debut album “Other Ways”) and Danish bassist and composer Kenneth Dahl Knudsen (his album “Tété and its presentation tour in Latvia).

Music has always been an outlet of mine. A way to express my emotions in a non-verbal way, allowing the audience to connect with their own experiences. I think the best way to describe my process and what I do is transforming emotions, feelings, experiences – moments in time into music and opening up the possibilities for the listener to fill its purpose with something personal and let themselves feel it and accept it whether it’s something joyous, heartbroken, nostalgic or blissful – always true.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve always been a fan of film music, so, in a way, ever since I started writing my own compositions, subconsciously I’ve been writing “film” music to our everyday moments. Decorating the silence around our thoughts. There’s this general idea of adding something meaningful to our emotional being. And if my music can make you sink into your heart and make you feel something genuine, to experience even a slight moment of pure, unfiltered emotions, I’ll gladly accept it as my mission – having my creative journey be an asset to someones emotional one.

The process of writing music for me is somewhat similar to searching for the right words to express your feelings. The words that are almost hanging by the tip of your tongue, yet still out of our reach. One of the thing that art does is it captures a point in time. Whether it’s a feeling, a memory or simply a thought. You feel it, you capture it and then you nurture it, shape it in the way it best represents what that means to you. And sometimes it’s a very specific thing. But sometimes it allows you – the listener – to use it as your vessel for you to fill with your own memories and feelings. Wheter it’s to linger in nostalgia of what has been or to daydream of something yet to come, it becomes a part of you, like a time capsule, capturing whatever it is you’re allowing it to hold. And over time it becomes a part of you. A part of your being. Like a hand, that reached out and sometimes it’s what has been missing. What was necessary to truly accept what we’re going through – good or bad. That fantasy is what drives me as a composer. That belief that what we create is something magical – how every combination and sequence of notes and timbres creates a new world. How my despair can give hope. How my serenity can illuminate bliss and my passion – elevate. That is what drives me and gives me purpose doing what I do.

To create music telling your story.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Socializing hasn’t always been easy for me, even though sometimes it might seem like it. At times I feel out of place, trying to find the right words, becoming annoyingly self-aware of every inch of my body. When performing my own music, though, it feels like it opens up a parallel universe of some sort in which we all connect. And suddenly we’re not strangers. In a way that’s hard to explain, the room becomes familiar. Even if it’s just for a moment, we let ourselves feel something truly personal, hidden, meaningful. And even though we don’t say it out loud or even give the slightest hint, there’s a space in which it is being heard, it is being felt and accepted, and for a brief moment we’re not doctors and lawyers, we’re just human. Whatever is truly lived – good or bad – has to be felt. And I believe music is one of the strongest elements that allows us to do so.

By performing our own music, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We open up our insecurities, we open up our true self to you. We reach out in an “it’s ok” way. The most rewarding aspect of being an artist has to be the connection we make with people. The sometimes unspoken, unwritten connection, which can be as simple as a passing look that locks in just for a moment. Long enough to feel. Creating a space in which, amongst strangers, a person can feel comfortable enough to smile or to cry. To fully embrace that moment in time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sarzantskrists.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarzantskrists
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KristsSarzants
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarzantskrists

Image Credits

Pauls Zvirbulis, Evilena Protektore, Vadim Kozhin, Maksis Kotovičs