The concert at Estonia’s oldest Vanemuine Theater (founded in Tartu in 1870) will take place as part of the Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra’s spring concert series. Expressing support and solidarity for Ukraine, the Ukrainian national anthem will be played at the beginning of the concert, and a lyrical composition “Melody” by the world-famous Ukrainian composer Miroslav Skorik will be performed at the end of the concert. Skorik has been called an icon of Ukrainian culture and has received the highest title of his country – a Ukrainian hero – for his contribution to culture.
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The concert will be opened with the internationally successful composition “Tango” by the bright contemporary Latvian composer Arthur Muscat. At the center of the program will be the premiere of the concert clarinet Between Two Blazes / Breezes by the famous Estonian composer and actor Ardo Ran Varres. Next, the Russian giant Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite “Sheherezade”, known to listeners around the world for the wonders of the East and the symphonic storm.
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“The collaboration with the Vanemuine Orchestra is special both because this is the first time I have been invited to conduct this orchestra and because the concert program itself is extremely beautiful. I am especially pleased to have the opportunity to conduct Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherezadi One of my favorite symphonic opuses for romantic music, but the biggest intrigue of the concert and my responsibility is the upcoming world premiere – Varresa Concerto for Orchestra with an orchestra, in which the soloist will be the outstanding Estonian clarinetist Signe Sõmer.
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The concert in Tartu is a natural continuation of Lakstīgala’s international success with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the Bari Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Symphony Orchestra, the Istanbul Milli Reasürans, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen in Germany and the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden in Switzerland. Atvars Lakstīgala has also conducted Scottish ballet performances in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, the Izmir Chamber Orchestra in Turkey, the Minsk Academic Orchestra in Belarus, and the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania. With the Jazz Sinfônica de São Paulo (Brazil), he premiered the Nicholas Capustin Concerto for Orchestra, while Puccini’s “Bohemia” was staged at the Jerusalem Opera Festival.
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Atvars Lakstīgala also likes to perform here at home, in Latvia. On March 8, the conductor will perform at the “Grand Music Awards 2021” ceremony, and on March 16, he will perform at the operetta theater symphony orchestra’s concert “Music of Love” (Musique d’amour) with soprano Sonora Vaici, Anta Jankovska and other artists. On March 25, Lakstīgala, together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, flutist Dita Krenberg and double bass virtuoso Oskars Bokanovs, will perform another world premiere – Kristaps Pētersons Concerto for flute, double bass and orchestra. Lakstīgala points out that this concert is the biggest of his upcoming challenges and adds that “two major world premieres in one month are a great honor and responsibility for every conductor.”
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