Today, October 1st, tickets go on sale to the public for the Rīga Jūrmala Music Festival. The new season of the Festival, which will take place over 20 concerts in Riga and Jūrmala from July 16th to August 29th, will feature world-renowned classical music stars, including pianists Yuja Wang, Vikingur Ólafsson (Iceland), Sir András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes (Norway), Yefim Bronfman, Arcadi Volodos and Annabel Thwaite. The festival will also feature cellist Truls Mørk and violinist Renaud Capuçon, as well as legendary vocal soloists including soprano Renee Fleming, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, baritone Matthias Goerne, and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote.
Firmly established as one of the leading summer destinations for music lovers, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival returns in 2021 with four weekends centred around four major international ensembles: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with John Eliot Gardiner, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Muti, the Concertgebouworkest with Daniel Harding and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov.
On August 25th, in the presence of more than 100 leading Latvian events professionals, awards were presented in 18 categories at the Latvian Events Producer Association’s (LaPPA) Event of the Year 2019 Awards. The international Rīga Jūrmala Music Festival received first place in two categories: Best Large Public Event, and Best Event Produced in Latvia.
Last weekend, from August 14th–16th, the final Riga Jurmala Music Festival Musical Soirees took place as part of the Riga City Festival. As part of the event, visitors could enjoy the informal atmosphere and see the city from a different perspective: through classical music, by listening to Riga Jurmala Music Festival programmes which were not performed this summer.
Continuing the Riga Jurmala Academy’s series of online masterclasses, virtuoso classical guitar player Miloš Karadaglić (MILOŠ) will lead a masterclass at 15:00 on August 20th with students of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. The masterclass will be enhanced with a special question and answer session moderated by local classical guitarist and musician Kaspars Zemītis. The masterclass will be broadcast to the public via the festival’s Facebook page.
Have you ever kicked off your weekend with a relaxed evening in the very heart of Riga’s Old Town accompanied by classical music? As part of the Riga City Festival, the Rīga Jūrmala Festival is adding to its Musical Soirees programme with a daytime audio concert showcasing local pianist Daumants Liepiņš’ concert programme which could not be performed at the Festival this year—a completely unique concert format for the Festival! All classical music lovers are warmly welcome to spend an hour in a relaxed setting listening to classical music in the very heart of Riga’s Old Town, and maybe even seeing Riga and the House of the Blackheads from a completely different, new viewpoint! Attendees are welcome to bring their own snacks, coffee or a pastry and spend a free, unhurried hour with us.
As part of the Riga City Festival, the Riga Jūrmala Festival’s Musical Soirees will continue, offering visitors to Riga the chance to hear the Festival programmes which were not performed this year. The events will take place on August 14th to 16th from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Riga, in Kronvalda Park by the Chinese Pavilion. In collaboration with Latvijas Radio 3 Klasika, the concert programmes will be broadcast on the radio throughout Latvia. During the Musical Soiree series, the Festival hopes to give listeners the impression that the melody is coming from the city—its parks and squares—to create a unique musical experience. Enjoyment of the audio concerts is amplified by light installations and the atmosphere created by artist Krišs Salmanis.
While this year’s Festival has been cancelled, audiences in Riga and Jurmala are able to hear the planned repertoire for the Festival is a series of open-air broadcasts of recordings. Presented in a highly creative way, listeners get the impression that the music is coming from their surroundings - its parks, trees and bushes – which is combined with light installations created by artist Krišs Salmanis. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own picnics and the reaction of participants was estatic as people felt it was a much needed public coming together to share a cultural moment as Latvia comes out of the pandemic and opens up to tourism and cultural events.
As part of the Rīga Jūrmala Festival Academy, world-famous cellist and former Rigan Mischa Maisky (1948) will give online masterclasses to young Latvian talents. The masterclass will take place on July 8th at 3 p.m., and the participants will be cellists from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music: Klāvs Jankevics, Ernests Cīrulis and Tomass Ančs. The masterclass can be viewed by the public on the Festival Facebook page. The masterclass will be moderated by composer, music journalist and critic Edgars Raginskis.
Although this summer’s highly anticipated Riga Jurmala Music Festival was forced to suspend its full-scale programme until next year, we couldn’t just leave the audience without a few rather special musical encounters. This time, Riga itself turns into a stage. In July and August, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival is offering a series of enchanting summer evenings accompanied by timeless classical melodies. However, the Festival will switch its ordinary indoor format and head outdoors – to Riga’s parks, streets, and industrial areas.
