The first opera Liepiņs saw was Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades in Liepāja Theatre in early childhood.

[2] At the age of seventeen, he started composing and joined Liepāja band Santa which he left a year later.

In 1970 band Santa took part in the festival Liepājas Dzintars where Liepiņš received an award for the best folk song arrangement.

[1] In the 1980s, Liepiņš became popular with numerous hits of the time (Vēl ir laiks, Viss kārtībā, Ceļojums, Dziesma par rozīti, Sentiments).

[4] In 1997 Liepiņš received the Latvian Music Award for the opera Parīzes Dievmātes katedrāle (Notre-Dame de Paris).