Koklet Ensemble Competition Final to take place at Riga Culture and Folk Art Center

On June 10 of this year, the final of the koklet ensemble competition will be held at the Riga Culture and Folk Art Center “Mazā gilde”. 19 choir ensembles will take part in the final. The competition will be judged by an international jury.

As “Delfi” informs the representatives of the Latvian National Cultural Center, the finals of the percussion ensembles competition will take place in the Small Guild throughout the day from 10 a.m., the award ceremony is scheduled for 8 p.m. difficulty group. Each finalist will perform one compulsory piece from the collective repertoire of the XXVII General Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival ensembles and one or more freely chosen pieces.

Anyone interested is invited to watch the final of the competition, admission is free.

The participants of the final will be judged by the jury – chairwoman of the jury commission, Lithuanian concert organist and teacher, graduated and practicing percussionist, laureate of national and international competitions, musician of “Duo Unicum” and the ensemble “Lajos”, Ingrida Kurienė, internationally known Estonian concert organ virtuoso Anna Līza Ellere (Anna Liisa Eller), Finnish cantelist, the first ethnomusicologist in Finland who obtained a doctorate in music science, plays solo, in chamber ensembles and groups, lecturer at the Sibelius Academy of the Finnish University of the Arts Arja Kastinen, composer, head of the Department of Composition at the Jāzeps Vītolas Latvian Academy of Music, assistant professor Āriks Ešenvalds, composer, conductor, pedagogue, professor at the Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Academy of Music, head of the Orchestra Conducting Department Andris Vecumnieks, certified kole player and pedagogue, teacher of kole specialty and ensemble playing at the Jāzepa Mediņa Riga Music High School, member of national competition juries, Latvian National Cultural Center Dita Neilande, a member of the advisory council of kokle music, certified kokle teacher, Ramona Davidone, the artistic director of the kokle ensemble “Ekosēze” for 15 years.

Ingrīda Kuriene, the chairwoman of the jury commission, says: “I will be participating in a competition of this level for the first time in Latvia. I know the artistic level of the best ensembles of Latvian kokle players quite well. I am looking forward to this musical competition!”.

It has already been reported that the program of the XXVII General Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival will take place on July 6 at the Ķīpsala International Exhibition Center with the Kokļi music concert “River of Time”

Also, on July 3, the Kokli music night concert “Gaismas garden” will be played in Riga Cathedral. The concert is conceived as a concert of original Latvian academic music, in which the music of Latvian composers of different generations will be played, created specifically for ensembles of kokletė players. The concert will consist of solo performances of individual ensembles, but at the end, an ambitious collective composition is planned – all the concert participants will play Valda Zilver’s composition “Games of Bells”, a second version of which will be created especially for this concert, including the sound of the organ. The concert will be enriched by a new work by the composer Lienes Batņas specially created for this concert for the ensemble and choir.

On July 3, there will be a Kokli music night concert “Night song” in the Torņakalna church. At the concert in the Torņakalna church, covers and arrangements of Latvian popular music will be played for koklet ensembles, in some pieces the sound of koklet will be enriched by timbres of other instruments and the human voice. In the course of the concert, the listeners will have the opportunity to hear the solo performances of the Latvian kokletai ensembles, in which the wide technical and creative possibilities of the concert kokle, the rich and diverse sound of the kokle, will be expressed, which will grow into a comprehensive performance by the combined kokletai ensemble at the end of the concert.

It has already been reported that the XXVII Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival will be held in Riga from June 30 to July 9, the main focus of which will be the 150th anniversary of the Song Festival tradition.