Appropriately enough for the Easter season, Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Passion and Resurrection tells the story of how Jesus Christ was betrayed by a friend, tortured to death, and then reportedly came back to life. It’s a spiritual counterpoint to New York composer David Lang’s Hans Christian Andersen–inspired The Little Match Girl Passion, which will also be featured when two of Vancouver’s top vocal ensembles, Chor Leoni and the Elektra Women’s Choir, join forces at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts this weekend. The subtext of Ešenvalds’s piece, though, has as much to do with the Latvian composer’s own life as with the biblical Passion.

It’s not that Ešenvalds is in any way comparing himself to the son of the god that he accepted into his heart at the tender age of 14. But both he and his country experienced their own resurrection during the 1980s, when he was a teenager and Latvia was emerging from under the domination of its neighbour, Russia.

“I grew up in an ordinary Soviet family: my mom was a teacher, and my dad was a driver on an ambulance,” Ešenvalds explains in thickly accented English from Portland, where he’s working with the Oregon Repertory Singers. “So no place for God, no place for church at all.”

Then came what he calls “the awakening”. As in the other Baltic countries, Latvia’s long-dormant religious institutions were quick to fill the leadership gap left by the collapse of the Communist party. And although going to Sunday school was at first primarily a social experiment for the young composer, his musical gifts were quickly appreciated. By 14, he was playing piano and writing songs for his Baptist church’s choir, which was quickly followed by a true conversion experience.

“I experienced God touching my life,” he says. “That was a very important time for me. My parents had divorced when I was a small child, and in my teenage years I had a lot of very philosophical questions about life. And I’m so glad that I didn’t turn toward, like, drugs or smoking or alcohol. I found something much better: I found God and church and the power of prayer, and since that day I have been happy to experience God in my life.”

But it took human intervention before Ešenvalds discovered his true calling. Despite his new-found faith, the composer was still slightly adrift during his teenage years. After acing his entrance examination, he enrolled in the psychology department at Latvia’s most prestigious university, but quickly found that he didn’t “have the nerves” for that line of work. The seminary then beckoned, but a religious education was also found wanting.

“It was boring to me,” he says frankly. “And I don’t remember who, but someone suggested to me, ‘Why don’t you show your church compositions to a professor at the Latvian Music Academy?’ And I thought, ‘Hmmm. An interesting turn in my life that would be.’ So I did, and on that day my life changed again. The professor looked at my scores and he said, ‘You are very gifted. You have talent. And, yes, you can study with us.’ So I did.”

Since then, Ešenvalds has amassed a vast catalogue of works both secular and sacred, choral and instrumental. He’s also sung professionally with the State Choir Latvija, which encompasses the 50 finest vocalists in a nation of singers, and which commissioned Passion and Resurrection in 2005. Incorporating musical motifs from the 16th-century Spanish composer Cristóbal de Morales along with texts drawn from Catholic, Protestant, and Byzantine liturgy, the work nonetheless possesses the kind of emotional power that even heathens will appreciate.

“They said, ‘Write something that you feel,’ ” says Ešenvalds of the commission. “So I was very glad to use all my knowledge and tell an emotional story about Christ’s life.”

Soprano Rachel Fenlon joins Chor Leoni and the Elektra Women’s Choir at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday (April 12).