Vīksna said that at the concerts of VAK “Latvija”, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and guest artists will perform world and Latvian premieres, Western European choral music classics, Ligeti’s Requiem and Ukrainian sacred music under the leadership of Mārs Sirma and guest conductors – Jeremie Backhaus, Krista Audere, Andras Poga and Oleksandr Vacek.
VAK “Latvija” and organist Aivars Kalējs will open the festival at 19:00 on August 13 in Riga Cathedral, where one of the most prominent English choir conductors, Beckhaus, will take the conductor’s desk. At the concert, it will be possible to hear the opus of the classics of British music – the English lyricist Edward Elgar, master of sacred music composition and choral harmony Herbert Howells, national symphonists Ralph Vaughan William and William Walton, as well as contemporary choral music luminaries James McMillan, Jonathan Dove and others.
An integral part of the festival is the premiere concert, which will take place on August 18 at 8 p.m. in the Riga City Hall. Under the leadership of conductor Sirmās, VAK “Latvija” will perform the new works of composers recognized in Latvia and the world – Rihards Dubras and Jēkabs Jančevskis, as well as the compositions of young composers Raivjas Misjuna, Lauma Kazakas and Jēkabs Bernāts.
On August 27 at St. Peter’s Church in Riga at 7 p.m., the sacred motets of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, interspersed with the compositions of Agra Engelmans and Olivier Messiaen, will be performed under the leadership of Audere, a Latvian conductor living in the Netherlands, laureate of the 2021 Eric Erikson International Choir Conducting Competition. for solo instruments.
Gertruda Jerjomenko, Kārlis Catlaks, Ārik Kiršfeld and Guntis Kolerts will take part in the performance of the “Latvija” concert program together with VAK. In cooperation with the South Kurzeme festival “Rimbenieks”, this program will also be played in Liepāja’s St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Cathedral on August 28 at 6 p.m.
On August 31, at 7 p.m. in Riga’s St. Peter’s Church, together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, soprano Jerī Sū and mezzo-soprano Virpi Raisanen, VAK “Latvija” and conductor Andris Poga, a 20th-century music program is expected with the Requiem of the modernist artist Gērģs Ligeti, which has not been performed in Latvia until now. as well as the symphonic meditation “Les Offrandes oubliées” by the religious mystic Olivier Messiaen and the 23rd psalm by Alexander Cemlinski.
The closing concert of the 25th International Sacred Music Festival will take place on September 8 at 7 p.m. in Riga’s St. Peter’s Church, where Ukrainian sacred music will be performed by VAK “Latvija” under the leadership of Ukrainian conductor Vacek.
