Mariss Jansons (born January 14, 1943) is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga ghetto. As a child, he first studied violin with his father. In 1946, his father won second prize in a national competition and was chosen by Evgeny Mravinsky to be his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic.