29th International Sacred Music Festival
The State Choir Latvija and its artistic director Māris Sirmais invite audiences to the 29th International Sacred Music Festival, taking place from August 14th till September 10th at Riga St. Peter’s Church, Riga Cathedral, and Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Viļaka. The festival’s four concert programmes will present outstanding examples of sacred choral a cappella and vocal-symphonic music, ranging from German mature Romanticism and Swiss Neo-Renaissance traditions to works and world premieres by contemporary Latvian and French composers. Conductors Māris Sirmais and Andris Poga will lead the choir and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, while solo performances will feature soprano Ilze Grēvele-Skaraine, mezzo-soprano Zanda Švēde, and Polish tenor Maciej Kwaśnikowski.
The festival opens on August 14th at St. Peter’s Church with the concert PREMIERES, in which four new works by Latvian composers will receive their first performances by the State Choir Latvija under the direction of Māris Sirmais. Raivis Misjuns has composed two works dedicated to this year’s jubilee celebrants: a piece for mixed choir and double bass, to be performed by the composer himself, honouring Pēteris Vasks on his 80th anniversary, and an a cappella choral work dedicated to Pauls Dambis on his 90th anniversary. Andris Dzenītis has set poetry by his grandaunt — poet, writer, and translator Zelma Dzenīte — in the five-part cycle Songs of Zelma for mixed choir. A new work by Andrejs Selickis, dedicated to the Virgin Mary in keeping with the concert date, is written antiphonally for a cappella choir in accordance with ancient liturgical traditions. Meanwhile, Matīss Čudars bases his new composition on Rabindranath Tagore texts.
On August 29th, the State Choir Latvija and Māris Sirmais will present a concert programme at the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Viļaka, opening with one of the most remarkable sacred works of the 20th century — the Mass for Double Choir a cappella by Swiss composer Frank Martin, often described by music critics as a Renaissance Mass lost in time. The programme continues with sacred and folk-inspired works by Latvian composers Juris Vaivods, Jānis Ivanovs, Rihards Dubra, Ilona Rupaine, Laura Jēkabsone, and Ēriks Ešenvalds. Admission to the concert in Viļaka will be free of charge.
On September 4th at Riga St. Peter’s Church, internationally acclaimed Latvian conductor Andris Poga will lead the State Choir Latvija and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in a programme bringing together masterpieces of German Romanticism and a contemporary French premiere. The programme POGA. BRAHMS AND MONTALBETTI features two works by Johannes Brahms composed during the same period: Schicksalslied, Op. 54 — one of Brahms’ most significant vocal-symphonic works — and the Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53, performed by Zanda Švēde, the men’s group of the choir Latvija, and the LNSO. The programme concludes with the Latvian premiere of Fragments pour une messe by contemporary French composer Éric Montalbetti, joined by Polish tenor Maciej Kwaśnikowski.
The festival closing concert VASKS 80 will take place on September 10th at Riga Cathedral, celebrating the musical legacy and continuing creative work of composer Pēteris Vasks. Performed under the direction of Māris Sirmais by the State Choir Latvija, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and soprano Ilze Grēvele-Skaraine, the programme will feature works composed over the past five decades that affirm the strength of faith and divine trust: Pater Noster, Viatore, Credo, Prayer for Mother, Laudate Dominum, as well as the world premiere of the new work Faith.
More about festival – www.sgmf.lv
Festival visual identity design by Verner Timoško.
Tickets for the concerts in Riga are available at Biļešu Paradīze
Festival is supported by State Culture Capital Foundadtion of Latvia
