The work on adequate remuneration for the leaders of the Song Festival collectives has already begun, the Minister of Culture Agnese Logina (P) emphasized today, participating in the evaluation conference of the XXVII General Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival “Tradition. Cooperation. Continuation”.
She pointed out that tradition, cooperation and continuation are not only the name of the conference. In the opinion of the Minister of Culture, these words describe both the General Latvian Song and Dance Festival and also the month of Latvia’s birthday.
“We respect and love Latvia. The song festival is a declaration of love for our people and land, history and cultural heritage. The song festival should not only awaken our rich heritage, but also create a path for the future,” Logina said.
She called for ways to involve participants and creators of future celebrations, especially children, young people and anyone who resonates with this call. Login noted that true love requires work and listening, openness on a daily basis, which is why today’s meeting is so important.
“This will give us insights on how we can create even better holidays in the future. Work on such grandiose events as the Song and Dance Festival begins immediately after the previous holiday. The work has not been easy so far. To agree on the holiday days, you have overcome several really challenging years,” said the Minister of Culture.
She recalled the Covid-19 pandemic, a war almost right next door. We also had to overcome the rise in costs and the possible fall caused by the challenging years. Above all, those involved in the process of the Song and Dance Festival created one of the most beautiful events that Latvia has experienced.
“You gave us one of the greatest gifts – hope and self-confidence. On behalf of the Ministry of Culture (KM), I would like to thank everyone who worked on the celebration – conductors, choirs both professional and amateur”, dance groups, musicians, artists, planners, organizers and the producers of programs,” the minister said.
She emphasized that more than 10,000 people joined hands to make the XXVII General Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival inspiring, unifying and powerful. According to the Minister of Culture, this work is more than the maintenance and protection of Latvian culture. This is the future and the work to strengthen our nation and protect our statehood.
“For this work, you deserve more than respect, praise and applause. In order for the holiday to continue to delight future generations, you deserve respectful remuneration and support in the preparation of this holiday. Any artist, any of the thousands of people who have connected their lives and work with Latvia culture, any one of us understands the truth that an excellent result is not an accident,” Logina said.
She noted that it is preparation, years of training, rehearsals, drills and tests that require effort and discipline. The Minister of Culture emphasized that these efforts must be appreciated. In her opinion, these challenges must be solved together, because the meaning of the Song and Dance Festival is wider than any of us.
“We will continue the work we have started on the salary issue. We will solve it. However, the significance of this holiday is wider than KM. In order for our tradition to continue, the support for the holiday must increase. We must stand for cooperation in further support of the holiday. As in a united dance, as in a brave chorus, we must unitedly represent the meaning of the Song and Dance Festival,” said the Minister of Culture.
Login emphasized that this is her wish for everyone who has worked and will continue to work on the Song and Dance Festival. This is also the minister’s call to colleagues in the Cabinet of Ministers. The politician emphasized that the closing concert of this year’s holiday was played in the “Together up” election. This is Logina’s wish, the fulfillment of which will allow the festival to sound convincingly for the next 150 years.
At the conference, the conductor, representative of the choral industry, Mārtiņš Klišāns, addressed the Minister of Culture with a question that “extremely worries” the environment of professionals, namely, whether the Ministry of Culture has included as a priority the issue of remuneration of leaders of Song Festival collectives in the next year’s state budget. He also asked if the Minister of Culture is ready to defend this position.
The Minister of Culture stated that this is an interesting situation. She noted that a meeting of the working group is planned for November 3, where the salary can be discussed. Logina emphasized that work is underway on this issue, a working meeting will be held tomorrow where they can work on this issue.
The Minister of Culture’s answers caused indignation in the hall, so those present performed a fragment from the song “Gaismas pils” by the composer Jázeps Vītolas.
As Dāvis Lodziņš, adviser to the Minister of Culture, told LETA agency, on Friday, November 3, at the suggestion of the Minister of Culture Loginas, the Latvian National Culture Center (LNKC) convened a working group, which consists of LNKC, Song Festival Associations, the Association of Latvian Cultural Workers and representatives of local governments.
It is planned that the meeting will discuss the prepared conceptual report “On the procedures for financing the wages of the leaders of artistic collectives” and the objections received about it. It is planned to agree on further steps in order to be able to achieve an increase in the remuneration of the leaders of artistic collectives. Logina emphasizes that this is only one of the actions necessary to improve the understanding of the extensive work that is devoted to the preparation of the Song and Dance Festival.
LETA already wrote that the Latvian Conductors’ Association (LDA) calls for the “funding necessary for the daily process” of the Song Festival to be included in the next year’s budget priorities, LETA agency was informed by Agita Rimševiča, chairman of the board of LDA.
In the open letter addressed to Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV), Minister of Finance Arvil Asheraden (JV), Chairwoman of the Saeima Education, Culture and Sports Commission (JV), LDA states that the Song Festival phenomenon as a nationally important role is written in several Latvian state documents , but “reality is harsh” and “conductors’ professional daily work is at risk”.
“We have established that the implementation of the remuneration model for collective leaders, which is important for the continuity and succession of the Song Festival process and developed by the industry, is unfortunately not a priority in the Ministry of Culture (MoC). It follows from this that the priorities of the next year’s budget do not include the 16 million euros necessary to ensure competitive remuneration, nor a minimum survival budget for salary of 4.9 million,” the letter stated.
In LDA’s opinion, if the funding is not included in next year’s budget, then the Song Festival in 2028 will be in danger and “in such an emotional, numerous volume and artistically high value” as this summer, it will no longer take place. LDA fears that the conductors will soon stop the regular preparation work of the Song Festival process “because of the humiliating salary”.
LETA already wrote that last week the faction of the National Union (NA) invited the ministers of culture to a meeting to provide an explanation about the planned funding for the remuneration of the leaders of the Song Festival collectives, without including it in the list of budget priorities.
NA claims in an open letter that by not including the remuneration system for the leaders of the Song Festival prepared in the list of budget priorities, a “huge and possibly fatal” step backwards has been taken in ensuring the most important tradition of the Latvian people. Such a change of priorities seriously threatens the future of the Song and Dance Festival movement.
According to the political force, at the moment, leaders of the Song Festival movement’s collectives receive 39.69 euros per month from the state after tax for working with one collective – leaders of choirs, dance groups, woodwind ensembles and brass bands. On the other hand, the other leaders of the Song Festival collectives receive 19.84 euros per month after tax for managing one collective. The rest of the funding for collectives is provided by local governments, which can differ significantly.
As announced, at the meeting on September 26, after examining and approving the state budget requests for priority measures of the ministries, the government decided on an additional allocation of 13.6 million euros to the areas of responsibility of the Ministry of Culture – the culture sector was allocated an additional 8.1 million euros in 2024, while media policy – 5.5 million euros.
An increase of 3.8 million euros has been achieved for the priority set by the Ministry of Culture – the remuneration fund for employees working in state cultural institutions in 2024 – in order to bring the remuneration of cultural employees closer to the average remuneration of those working in the public sector.
In order to increase the cultural services program of Latvia from 7 euros to 10 euros for each school-age child next year, the financing of the “Latvian school bag” program has been increased by 1.4 million euros. On the other hand, in order to ensure the production of Latvian cinema films at least at the level of 2022 in 2024, additional funding of 900,000 euros has been allocated for the preservation of national cinema.
2023-11-02 18:08:33
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