VALDIS BUTĀNS graduated from the Department of Choral Conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music with MA degree and from the Department of Orchestral Conducting with MA degree. In 2005/2006 he perfected his orchestral conducting skills at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien) in Austria. Butāns has attended master classes taught by the likes of Lutz Köhler, Per Borin, Juozas Domarkas, Yuri Simonov and Zsolt Nagy. In 2010, Valdis Butāns became a semi-finalist of the XIV Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition for Conductors (Athens, Greece).
Valdis Butāns has been the assistant of conductor Karel Mark Chichon at the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and for the 2012/2013 season also at the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern.
The conductor has worked with the Sinfonia Concertante Chamber Orchestra, appeared in concerts at the 2010 Arēna New Music Festival in Riga; he also assisted in rehearsals for the season opening concert of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra (2011) and the revival production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème at Latvian National Opera (2012).
From 2015 he is the main conductor and musical director of the Rīga Professional Symphonic Band.