Latvia is participating in the world music exhibition WOMEX / Article for the 16th time

“The selection that serves as Latvia’s business card on the forum stand includes recently released music recordings and stories that make this music special. We choose various artists who together form the current Latvian ethno music scene. It changes from year to year. Concert life in recent years has been smaller , so it is a special pleasure that new bands are emerging and will be heard more widely, which will form the Latvian music scene in the future – we will definitely hear them in the next selections this year. to ethnic music, “said Lauma Bērza, ethnomusicologist and author of the Native Music concept.

This year’s selection includes the groups “Saucējas”, “ZeMe”, “Auļi”, “Ceiruleits”, “Muosys”, “Tautumeitas”, “Iļģi”, “Very Cool People”, “Jauno Jāņu orchestra”, “Laiksne”, “Tarkšķi”, as well as recordings by Lauma Bērza & Arnis Mednis. The artist of the album is Vadims Kožins and its design uses photographs by Jānis Romanovskis. The sample was published with the support of the State Cultural Capital Fund.

“At a time when many events in the music industry are being canceled or relocated to a virtual environment, face-to-face meetings with like-minded people and colleagues from other countries are especially valuable,” said Egils Schaefer, LMIC’s director and CEO of Skani. “Since 2006, with the support of the State Culture Capital Fund, we have been organizing a Latvian stand at the forum, where we present news on Latvian ethno music. Both festival organizers and producers participate in the stand. artists of music and other similar genres. “

WOMEX is also a platform for international projects. Daina Zalal, director of the cultural management center “Lauska” and organizer of the ethno-festival “Butter”, said: “With the support of the European Union’s Creative Europe program, we created a joint project” NuFolk Global Connections “with representatives of Belgium, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Denmark “The orchestra, in which Katrīna Dimanta and Ilze Fārte from Latvia participated. The listeners will definitely remember the performance of these talented young people at the ethno-festival” Butter “this summer.

WOMEX is the world’s foremost international forum for music professionals around the world – nearly 3,000 musicians, publishers, producers, music journalists, festival organizers and others from the music industry around the world. During the five days of the event, about 60 musical associations will perform on several stages. In the forum, you can meet like-minded people, find out about current events, make new contacts and find inspiration for new projects.

In the history of WOMEX’s 27-year existence, kokletan Laima Jansone (2011), the group “Iļģi” (2015) and the traditional singing group “Saucējas” (2019) of the Latvian Academy of Culture have performed at the forum.

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