28th International Sacred Music Festival
The State Choir “Latvija” and its artistic director Māris Sirmais invite all interested parties to the 28th International Sacred Music Festival, which will take place from August 14 to September 5 at St. Peter’s Church and the Riga Congress Hall. Four concert programs will feature a stylistically rich array of sacred music, including gems of late Italian Renaissance vocal polyphony and their echoes in contemporary works, world premieres by Latvian composers, lyrical Scandinavian and French choral music, highlights of modern Estonian classical music, as well as a Latvian premiere – the first Passion to express the teachings of Buddha, merging Eastern and Western cultural traditions through music.
The festival’s opening concert, “Premieres. Palestrina”, will take place on August 14 at St. Peter’s Church in Riga. Under the direction of conductor Māris Sirmais, the voices of the State Choir “Latvija” will create musical bridges spanning five distant centuries. This year marks the significant 500th anniversary of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the leading composer of the late Renaissance, who was — and still is — revered as a master of impeccably refined vocal polyphony. His masterpieces will be performed alongside motets by contemporary Italian composer Lorenzo Donati, which are based on themes by Palestrina.
The program will also feature the world premieres of three contemporary works: “Be Here and Now” for mixed choir a cappella by Jānis Rubiks — a double bassist, bass guitarist, composer, and arranger; “Five Poems by Rilke”, a cycle for mixed choir and percussion by composer and founder of the Ozoli School of Music, Jānis Lūsēns, and “Via Amoris” for mixed choir and electronics by conductor, ethnomusicologist, composer, and member of the State Choir “Latvija”, Irīna Mihailovska.
On August 21 at St. Peter’s Church in Riga, the concert “Love Songs” will be conducted by Krista Audere, a Latvian conductor currently living and working in the Netherlands. She is the conductor of the chamber choir at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a choral conducting lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. As a guest conductor, she regularly collaborates with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Netherlands Radio Choir, and Cappella Amsterdam. Since 2025, she has also served as the principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir.
Krista Audere has previously collaborated with the State Choir “Latvija” at the 25th and 26th International Sacred Music Festivals and now returns with a concert program intertwining spiritual love lyricism by Scandinavian composers (Torbjørn Dyrud, Knut Nystedt, Sven–David Sandström, Martin Ødegaard) and French composer Pierre Villette.
The concert’s guest artist is violinist Paula Šūmane, whose performance will weave throughout the program — both in solo violin episodes and in organic interplay with the choir.
The concert “Pärt – 90”, taking place on August 28 at St. Peter’s Church in Riga, will be held in honour of the 90th anniversary of Estonian contemporary classical music composer Arvo Pärt. Sacred themes are deeply woven into Pärt’s work — evident both in his choice of liturgical texts and the philosophically profound content of his compositions. His creative output has significantly reshaped our understanding of the essence of music.
The program will feature works from Pärt’s tintinnabuli period, which began in 1976, characterized by a musical language reduced to its most essential and meaningful core. The concert will include compositions for mixed choir a cappella, organ pieces, and a work for male choir, organ, and percussion. In this latter piece, the State Choir “Latvija” will be joined by percussionist Reinis Tomiņš and organist Kristīne Adamaite.
The concert’s artistic director is Estonian conductor Risto Joost, who serves as chief conductor and artistic director of the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, conductor at the Estonian National Opera, and chief conductor of the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra.
The festival’s closing concert on September 5 at the Riga Congress Hall will be a unique event in Latvia’s musical life – for the first time ever, Chinese composer and conductor Tan Dun’s monumental work Buddha Passion will be performed in Latvia.
After visiting the Mogao Caves in the Dunhuang Desert – the oldest cave monastery complex in northern China – the composer was profoundly inspired by the countless murals he saw there. These “musical frescoes” depict more than 4,000 musical instruments, 3,000 musicians, and 500 orchestras. “I was so deeply moved that I could almost hear the sounds flowing out of the wall paintings,” said Tan Dun.
Over the next six years, he created this powerful opus – a captivating story of miracles, truth, and a quiet yet inevitable transformation. The work blends a wide range of styles, including both Western and Chinese opera, Western classical music, and Asian folk traditions.
The Buddha Passion will be performed by the State Choir “Latvija,” the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra with an extended percussion section, and a large ensemble of soloists, including Jolanta Strikaite, Viktorija Majore, Ieva Parša, and Mārtiņš Zvīgulis.
This special Latvian premiere will be led by the artistic director and conductor Māris Sirmais.
Tickets available at www.bilesuparadize.lv
