PHOTO: Liepaja Symphony Orchestra 140th season closing concert

In the concert, which was attended by spectators both in Latvia and in many parts of the world (Great Britain, Brazil, Finland, USA, the Netherlands, Lithuania), the orchestra conducted by its chief conductor Gintars Rinkevičs performed Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto and Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony. Pianist Vestards Šimkus sat at the piano.

The Liepaja Symphony Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in the Baltic States. In Latvia, it is still the only professional orchestra outside the capital. Its origins can be traced back to 1881, when the first Baltic Philharmonic was founded. Since 2017, the main conductor of the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra is the outstanding maestro – Lithuanian Gintars Rinkevičs. The orchestra regularly gives concerts in its home – Liepāja Concert Hall Great amber, as well as elsewhere in Latvia and the world – in China, Japan, India, Greece, Azerbaijan.

One of the orchestra’s most valuable traditions is the Star Festival, which has been held every spring since 1993. It was originally founded as the Festival of Pianist Stars by the long-term leader of the ensemble, conductor Imants Resnis, and it has attracted almost 200 famous soloists from all over the world to collaborate with the orchestra.

The Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, like its home city, is characterized by creativity and openness to diverse ideas. Also for new works – since 2010, a cycle of 12 Liepāja concerts has been performed under the direction of the orchestra’s chief conductor Atvars Lakstīgala, which are compositions created by Latvian composers especially for this orchestra. Similarly, in 2015, the cycle of the Latvian Centennial Symphony of the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra was started.

The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is both a multiple winner of the Grand Music Prize and has repeatedly won the Latvian Music Record of the Year Award. The orchestra has collaborated with record companies such as Toccata Classics, Wergo a Odradek Records, has recorded symphonic music by Pēteris Vasks, Imants Kalniņš, Lūcija Garūta, Charles O’Brien, Bēla Bartoks, Arnolds Šēnbergs and other composers.

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