Ruta Paidere (b. 1977) has studied music theory in Jāzeps Mediņš Music College in Riga and composition at the Hamburg University of Music (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, graduated 2005). Her compositions have been performed across Europe in various concert series as well as at such music festivals as Musica in Strasbourg, Tenso Days in Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival in Germany and the Arēna festival in Riga. She has been commissioned for masterclasses by the Akademie OPUS XXI in France, the Bavarian Academy of Arts and the Ernst von Siemens Music Fund, Cologne Radio, the Latvian Radio Choir and the Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra in Riga. In 2007, she received the Bach Award/Scholarship of Hamburg. In 2012, her composition “Tempera” was nominated for the Latvian Great Music Award as the Best New Composition of the Year. Since 2016, Ruta Paidere is professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg (in the Composition and Music Theory Department).