Pēteris Vasks (born April 16, 1946) is a Latvian composer. Vasks was born in Aizpute, Latvia, to a family of a Baptist pastor. He trained as a double-bass player, and played in several Latvian orchestras before entering the State Conservatory in Vilnius in the neighboring Lithuania to study composition, as he was prevented from doing this in Latvia due to Soviet repressive policy toward Baptists. He started to become known outside Latvia in the 1990s.