Youthful ardour, joy of learning and discovery of new horizons are the traits that best describe the State Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga. Since its foundation in 2006, the orchestra's artistic director and chief conductor has been Normunds Šnē. Sinfonietta Rīga musicians are young, erudite and bursting with creativity. They are assiduous students of the musical heritage of the First and Second Viennese School and eager presenters of the musical phenomena and styles of the 20th century, while continuing to look for the brightest revelations in contemporary music scene. Among the ambitions of the orchestra is promotion and development of chamber symphony genre in Latvian music, therefore twice a year Sinfonietta Rīga commissions a new chamber symphony score to contemporary Latvian composers.
Sinfonietta Rīga often collaborates with guest conductors, and has staged thematically and stylistically varied programmes together with Paavo Järvi, Heinz Holliger, John Storgårds, Christoph Poppen, Olari Elts, Juha Kangas and Tõnu Kaljuste.
Among the brilliant soloists that have performed together with Sinfonietta Rīga are classical singers Julia Lezhneva and Inga Kalna; pianists Kristian Bezuidenhout and Yevgeny Sudbin; internationally renowned Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna; violinists Isabelle Faust, Kolja Blacher, Baiba Skride, Pekka Kuusisto and Thomas Zehtmair; cellists Sol Gabetta and Jean-Guihen Queyras; and the members of the Berlin-based Artemis Quartet – violinist Vineta Sareika and violist Gregor Sigl, as well as Ukrainian violist Maxim Rysanov. The orchestra has also enjoyed collaborations with clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann; trombone soloist Christian Lindberg; percussionists Martin Grubinger, Evelyn Glennie and Peter Erskine; accordionist Ksenija Sidorova; Argentinian bandoneon player Marcelo Nisinman; oboe soloist Alexei Ogrintchouk; and early music experts Andrew Lawrence-King and Enrico Onofri. Over the years, the orchestra has developed a close creative friendship with Latvian Radio Choir and its conductor Sigvards Kļava. Together, they stage several musical programmes each year, including first performances of Latvian sacred music.
Along with active concert life in Latvia and the other two Baltic States, Sinfonietta Rīga has performed in the Elbphilharmonie and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal in Munich and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In Netherlands, the orchestra has performed several times, both in Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw and De Doelen in Rotterdam; and it has also conquered the hearts of audiences in St. Petersburg Philharmonia and the Lincoln Center in New York.

As well as offering the core repertoire of a conductor – symphonic works and operas - Claus Efland regards himself as an ambassador of music from his native Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia. A major artistic goal is to bring the distinctive musical language of Nordic composers to a wider audience. This is especially true of the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen which exerted a formative influence on Claus Efland´s musical passions. Not only were they both born on the same island, but Efland had the honour of performing on the composer´s famous Scamparella violin while studying in Denmark. As an expert in Nordic music, Claus Efland conducts orchestral works by Nielsen, Grieg, Sibelius, Svendsen and others all over the world, some as first performances.
Claus Efland first attracted international attention in 2004 as Second Prize Winner in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London. Since then, his busy schedule as a conductor has taken him to Scandinavia, England, Germany, Italy and South America. He has worked as a guest with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, with the Danish symphony orchestras in Odense, Aarhus and Sønderjylland, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Orquesta Filharmónica de Mexico City, Orquesta Sinfonica Provincial de Santa Fe (Argentina) and Orquesta de Cadaqués (Spain). He has worked with soloists including Albrecht Mayer, Nikolai Demidenko, Natalie Clein and Rita Cullis. He enjoys a close relationship with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, with whom, since 2011, he has given a series of sell-out New Year Concerts in the Berlin Konzerthaus. Claus Efland has also earned a strong profile as opera conductor. He led the critically acclaimed production of Rossini´s La Cenerentola with the Kammerakademie Potsdam at the Potsdamer Winteroper in 2010, with extra performances at the Brandenburger Theater. Furthermore he conducted a highly praised production of La Traviata at Teatro dell´Opera in Rome and various stagings at Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto, (Italy) and with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. At the Fynske Opera in Denmark, he led a new production of Donizetti´s Don Pasquale, and has been invited back for a new production in 2015. Claus Efland started his musical career as a violin player, later studying conducting at the Royal College of Music in London and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. After winning countless awards and prizes - among them the renowned Scandinavian Léonie Sonning Award as the most talented Danish conductor of his generation, and his success at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London - he took up an invitation from Sir Colin Davis to become his assistant at the Dresden Staatskapelle. Claus Efland is an exclusive artist with the label Challenge Records. In Autumn 2013 his first CD Concertante with Sinfonietta Riga was released with the next one due in February 2014 - Nordic Atmospheres – including works by Nielsen, Vasks, Grieg and Sibelius.