Adolfs Skulte (1909–2000) was a Latvian, Soviet composer and teacher. He was also a film composer and music educator. He received the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1979 and two Stalin Prizes, in 1950 and 1951.
He was born on October 15 (28), 1909, in Kyiv. Music was central to his family life: his Latvian-born father, Peter Skulte, played several instruments, while his Italian-born mother, Victoria, played the piano. His parents taught him the foundations of music, and he wrote his first compositions at the age of nine.
After the family moved to Riga in 1922, Skulte studied at the First Riga Gymnasium, graduating in 1928. He entered the engineering faculty of the University of Latvia, but in 1930 he began studying composition at the Latvian Conservatory and left the university the following year. He completed Jāzeps Vītols's practical composition class in 1934, presenting a piano sonata as his graduation work. While still a student, he conducted the mixed choir of teachers and students at the people's university in Balvi.
Skulte first gained recognition with the symphonic poem Waves (1934), which won a prize in a competition organized by Latvian Radio. From 1934 to 1936 he continued his studies in the conservatory's advanced composition class under Vītols. In 1936 he became an assistant in the composition faculty, beginning a teaching career that included composition and theoretical subjects. He became an associate professor in 1939 and later taught orchestration. He headed the conservatory's composition department from 1948 to 1955 and from 1957 to 1972, and became a professor in 1952.
His students included Raimonds Pauls? [No—source names R. Kalsons, A. Grīnups, E. Goldsteins, R. Grīnblats, I. Kalniņš, A. Kalejs, I. Zemzaris, M. Brauns, and A. Engelmanis.]
Skulte mainly wrote large-scale symphonic and musical-theatrical works. His output included the ballets Sakta of Freedom (1951) and Storm in Spring (1967), the operas The Caliph's Alarm Clock, Princess Gundega (1971), The Hedgehog's Fur Coat (1979), and the children's miniature opera The Tale of the Silly Little Mouse (1984). His vocal and choral works included the oratorio Wipe Away Your Tears, Motherland (1975), the cantatas Riga (1951), We Have One Party (1961), and Echo (1969), and the choral poem To the Sea (1971).
He composed nine symphonies, including For Peace (1954), Ave Sol! (1959), Cosmic (1963), Youth (1965), and Save Nature! (1981). Other orchestral works included the symphonic poems Waves (1934), Dawn (1938), and Choreographic Poem (1957), as well as music for string and wind orchestra. His catalogue also contained a string quartet, piano music including a 1934 sonata and the cycle Moods, romances for voice and piano, a cappella choral songs, and music for dramatic productions and films. His music often used rhythmic features associated with Latvian folk music.
Skulte wrote scores for the films The Kauguri Uprising (1941), Rainis (1949), Soviet Latvia (1950), Ķemeri (1951), Rita (1957), The Story of a Latvian Rifleman (1958), Your Happiness (1960), The Embankment (1970), and The Reed Forest (1971). His honors also included the titles of People's Artist of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and Honored Artist of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic State Prize, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of the Three Stars, and the Great Music Prize of Latvia.
He died on March 20, 2000, at P. Stradiņš University Clinical Hospital in Riga and was buried at Forest Cemetery. He had been married since 1937 and had a son, Guido Skulte (1939–2013), a cinematographer.