Director General Mārtiņš Klišāns: Christmas charities are in danger of disappearing and ending

“We sing in the morning, play sports in the afternoon,” says Mārtiņš Klišāns, who currently leads nearly 60 boys’ choirs who have come together in a creative sports camp in Apšuciem. man but to sing and be happy about the summer, but thoughts about tomorrow are anxious. About all this – conversation “Neatkarīgas” with Mārtinas Klišānas, director and artistic director of the Riga Cathedral boys’ choir, the main director of the festival. a song.

Last November, we talked to you about the opinion of the management circles regarding the Latvian song and dance festival, about the fact that the salaries of the directors of choirs and dance groups should be included in the budget priorities. Such miracles are unheard of this year. Maybe something has changed a little?

What has changed is that we know: a million has been added to state grants, but it has not yet appeared in the wallets of choir directors and dance groups.

And when will it appear?

I asked this question to the National Cultural Center about three months ago. I wanted the center to respond to people, because they are not interested in where and what is stored, but they are interested in when “it” ends up in their wallets. The explanation did not happen to the country, at least not in the form I wanted. However, I hope that in the autumn, these targeted donations – perhaps including the past – will end up in the wallets of choir and dance directors.

But this is only the first step. At the moment, we do not feel any real changes, and I am not very optimistic, because, looking at everything that is happening around, in larger areas, like example with “Rail Baltica”, it looks like we will. able to bite the ice again…

Of course, billions are needed there, so directors of choirs and dance groups may not realize that a few million euros are needed.

Culture always suffers first. She can be sheared like a sheep all the time.

I also wanted to ask these questions in the interview to the current Minister of Culture, Agnes Lāce. But she was only prepared to answer in writing. This type of “interview” is not acceptable to me.

A very convenient option! Maybe she was scared. I met her at the Toronto Latvian Song Festival, she left a good human impression on me – unlike the previous Minister of Culture. But of course we are all interested in the works, not my personal feelings. But now it’s summer, none of the controllers have really been available.

Have you not met the Minister of Culture Agnes Lāci yet?

No, not now.

I recently spoke with bishop emeritus Pēteri Sprogis, and he said, among other things: in which year will the last song festival in Latvia take place? You said in our previous conversation that there could be two more, but what happens now?…

This is a very valid issue in the context of future school youth song festivals. This holiday will take place next summer. I don’t want to panic, but according to the current numbers, we cannot fill the stage of Mežapark with the school’s youth choirs.

The choral environment has a lot of inertia, there are people’s habits, participation. Nonprofessional art does not run out immediately, but there is no inertia in schools, because it is only what the young man is asked to do in school. And the whole big problem is in the education system. The lack of choirs in schools is serious, as choirs have disappeared in both cities and towns. This loss is simply unusual. The education system with unforced interest is destroying it.

If the Mežaparks stage is half empty next year, it will be a wonderful sign, because that is exactly what a legacy is – from the school choir to the big choir. The future of large choirs is in children’s choirs. If you don’t teach them to sing, if you’re not interested in them, they won’t go anywhere.

About 400 schools have already been closed or “reorganized”. Where there is no school, no cultural center, library, nothing. Where else to talk about the choir.

There are only big schools where children, even if they really want to, can’t go to choir lessons, because the school bus arrives again and again, but if a ‘ an educational interest group or choir in the evening, the child cannot attend. , because the bus has arrived. There are also absurd situations when students have to pay to sing in the choir.

Well, yes, the directors need to get some money…

I don’t think leaders get it.

It’s time for the national budget again. It should be remembered that there should be money in the budget for the leaders of choirs and dance groups. A wake-up call to ring?

The Christmas Friends Association should also be involved. In the middle of August, a camp for choir directors is planned in Ventspils – a professional camp that is more related to studying the repertoire and remembering forgotten things. However, I think there could also be a discussion about the salary of choir directors.

What do co-leaders say about the current situation?

We are all waiting.

You can also wait until today.

Yes, about that time.

Somehow, it does not appear that the Ministry of Culture and the government in general are even slightly concerned about the stability of the Latvian Song Festival, let alone the salaries of choir directors. But – oh yes! – it is a kind of “national holiday”, what can be said about it! Before last year’s song festival, we could read a conversation in “Satori” magazine, and the participant – choreographer Rudolfs Gediņš said: “Isn’t it true that the pre-holiday movement to the whole between the song festival also balances on such. dangerous nationalistic soil, in which these difficult-to-define, half-slang “traditional values” are mentioned?”

But what else could this event – a song festival – be, if not nationalistic and nationalist?

For the “progressives” in power now, the concept of “nationalism” seems to be a bad idea.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Most people agree with me. For those who do not understand, look at the explanatory dictionary.

Let’s remember that nationalism is a conservative political ideology that puts the concept of national identity first. Nationalism is the defense of a nation’s identity and values.

Then it is easier to say that such words should not be used.

It can happen. The sociologist Jānis Daugavietis wondered in the same conversation “Satori”: “It is clear that the name “Latvian song and dance festival” is an invention of Latvian nationalists; it is still a very nationalistic event, where there is Latvian language, Latvian songs, Latvian dances.” Something ends: those children speak Latvian and sing Latvian songs!

Yes, right. We no longer have black and white, we have a rainbow, parent #1 and parent #2. No, I’m a loyal and liberal man, I don’t care what anyone does in their bed. But there is no need for such “PR”. Make laws and live, but don’t call it family.

I don’t know what can happen to my children and grandchildren, because no one is safe from it. But there is no need for politics. Enough with the psychology.

But speaking of anthems… The big games are the big games, where are we going? However, losing culture would be wrong, even criminal. The extreme restrictions during covid also disheartened us. A lot of things went wrong, they disappeared emotionally and mentally. At that time, we are just starting to harvest the ripe fruit.

That is why it would be good if we were not forgotten in the shadow of all the great events. We all say with one voice that Fèis nan Òran is one of the cornerstones of our culture. But the government seems to have more important things to deal with.