On Saturday, 25 February, at 18:00, the 31st Liepāja International Stars Festival will be launched with a concert by the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its Chief Conductor Guntis Kuzma, taking the audience on a fascinating and vibrant journey into the world of music in a series of concerts that will last until 11 March.
For the first time, the Stars Festival opening concert is going to welcome the brightest young musicians from Latvian music high schools as part of the Valdis Vikmanis’ Latvian Young Performing Artists’ Competition.
On Thursday, 23 February, the “Melngailis” Concert Hall will witness the 2nd round of the competition, when young artists will be selected by conductor and clarinettist Guntis Kuzma, violinist Kristīne Balanas, percussionist Guntars Freibergs, pianist Sana Villeruša and opera singer Ilze Grēvele-Skaraine.
Winners of the competition will take the stage with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra at the opening concert, whilst the world-famous Latvian star Kristīne Balanas, also chair of the competition jury, will dazzle the public with Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in the crowning performance of the concert.
“We are committed to constantly creating new and interesting programmes and inviting outstanding artists to join us in creating the Star Festival”, says Guntis Kuzma, the Festival’s Artistic Director.
On 2 March at 19:00 in the “Great Amber” Chamber Hall, conducted by the representative of the emerging generation of choir conductors and the Song Festival’s chief conductor, Jurģis Cābulis, the Riga Chamber Choir “Ave Sol” will perform songs by the greatest masters of Latvian choral music. Jānis Ivanovs, Jēkabs Jančevskis, Pēteris Plakidis, Pēteris Vasks – these great composers’ music accompanied by the chamber choir will be performed by the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra musicians and the heavenly crystal voice of Aleksandra Špicberga.
Two contemporary brass music greats – one of the world’s most demanding trumpet artists, the Israeli musician Sergei Nakariakov, dubbed "the Paganini of the trumpet", and the brilliant Swedish trombonist Christian Lindberg, also a gifted conductor and composer, will take to the Stars Festival stage with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra on 4 March at 18:00, where Lindberg will solo in his own Trombone Concerto “Black Hawk Eagle” and conduct two other large-scale pieces: the mystically coloured and pervasive changing Trumpet Concerto by Mieczysław Weinberg, and the famous Second Symphony by Jean Sibelius.
On 10 March at 19:00 in the “Great Amber” Chamber Hall, the Stars Festival treats the audience to a solo concert by pianist Vestards Šimkus, performing both the fantastic patterns of galaxies by Alexander Scriabin and the intriguing oeuvre of the lesser-known Felix Blumenfeld.
The festival’s gala concert on 11 March at 18:00 will grant a fête for lovers of symphonic jazz. Ola Onabule, a London-born and a Nigeria-educated internationally acclaimed jazz singer whose velvety voice will be heard in Liepāja for the first time. Onabule’s latest album “Point Less” offers a chance to hear a new and exciting selection from the artist’s repertoire. And it will follow with a premiere of the Triple Concerto “Trio Colossus” for tenor saxophone, double bass, and percussion, composed by Kārlis Vanags, artistic director of the Latvian Radio Big Band. Besides, this will be the first time that the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will perform on the same stage with the Latvian Radio Big Band, with Guntis Kuzms at the conductor’s chair.
The Liepāja International Stars Festival was first launched in 1993 by Imants Resnis, former artistic director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, under the name of the International Piano Stars Festival. Nearly 200 pianists from all over the world have taken to the stage of this festival.
Since the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra took up residence in the concert hall “Great Amber” in 2016, the festival has evolved into a more extensive format, attracting pianists, instrumental virtuosos, as well as outstanding singers, adding to the list of festival stars such names as Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kramer, Carion Quintet, Iveta Apkalna, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Liudmyla Monastyrska and many others.
The 31st Liepāja International Stars Festival is supported by the Latvian Ministry of Culture, the Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the City of Liepāja and SEB Bank.
Please visit the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra website www.lso.lv/eng for additional information. Tickets for the festival concerts are available at “Biļešu paradise” https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/en
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