He has won several international and national awards, plays classical repertoire, composes music for cinema and theatre, and performs his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations.
His father Gunārs Šimkus used to be an art-rock musician who was active in the 1960s and 1970s and founded the first rock band named Katedrāle in Latvia.
From 1990 until 2002, he studied in Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Riga, where his teachers were Ruta Švinka, Ligita Muižarāja, Teofils Biķis and Sergejs Osokins.
From 2004 to 2006, he studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid under Dimitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez Mehner.
As a solo pianist, he has performed in major concert halls around the world, including Konzerthaus (Vienna), Konzerthaus Berlin, Tokyo Opera City, Radio France (Paris), Berwaldhallen (Stockholm), Konserthuset (Stockholm), Moscow Conservatory, Palau de la Musica (Barcelona), Sala Verdi (Milano), and Oriental Art Center (Shanghai).