WINDSTREAM OPENING CONCERT

JAZZ MUSIC CONCERT

Participants:

Orchestra RIGA and Orchestra RIGA bigband

Conductor Steffen Schorn (Germany)

Soloist Kristians Kalva (trumpet)

Moderator Anete Ašmane-Vilsone

At the opening concert of the 2024 WINDSTREAM festival, the audience will be offered a concert program with a tasteful eclecticism of academic and jazz music. In the first part of the concert, the large ensemble of the Orchestra RIGA will take the stage together with one of the brightest representatives of the new generation of Latvian jazz music – trumpeter Kristians Kalva, who studied with leading European jazz trumpeters at the Hague Conservatory. The American composer Dana Wilson has dedicated a lot of his music to the brass concert orchestra, and the Orchestra RIGA has so far included several premieres of his compositions in Latvia, which have received great acclaim from listeners, such as the piece “Avatar” with an unconventional bassoon. solo and “To Set the Darkness Echoing”, which recently premiered in Riga. At the opening concert of the 2024 festival, for the first time in Latvia, we will hear Dana Wilson’s opus – “Concerto for jazz trumpet and brass band” (2020). The first part of the concert will also feature the “Jazz Suite for Wind Orchestra” by Thorsten Wollmann, a German composer and performer recognized in the world jazz circles, which was composed relatively recently (in 2019) and is intended for the composition of a brass concert orchestra. In the second part of the concert, the big band of the “Riga” Orchestra will be highlighted, playing original music and arrangements by Steffen Schorn.

Steffen Schorn (Germany) – an internationally known specialist in low woodwind instruments, composer, improviser and conductor. He has performed extensively all over the world – in more than 70 countries, and has won many awards and prizes. As a conductor, he has worked with such internationally renowned ensembles as the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, the Danish Chamber Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Youth Orchestra and the Youth Jazz Orchestra, as well as with all German radio big bands: WDR, NDR, HR and SWR. His works have been performed in many countries, including commissions for Donaueschinger Musiktage, Oslo Jazz Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Int New Jazz Meeting Baden Baden, Roaring Hooves Festival Mongolia, Festa do Jazz Lisboa, Romanischer Sommer Köln. His repertoire for large and small ensembles consists of 11 concert suites, an “inner” opera, a selection of jazz tunes called the Songbook, the rhythmically developed Groovebook and more than 30 arrangements of tunes by the Brazilian genius Hermeto Pascoal.

Kristians Kalva, trumpeter – one of the most promising young jazz trumpeters in Latvia. Currently studying at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Rik Moll and Martin de Laat, two of Europe’s best-known trumpet players. He also studied at the Malta College of Music and won recognition in various international competitions. He regularly cooperates with prominent Latvian orchestras – the Latvian Radio Big Band, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonietta Rīga Chamber Orchestra, the Latvian National Opera and Ballet Orchestra – and has performed in international projects in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the USA, Spain, etc.

The spring festival WINDSTREAM was founded in 2010 and is organized and produced annually by the Orchestra RIGA. It is the largest, most significant and long-lasting festival produced by the Orchestra RIGA. The WINDSTREAM festival always starts with the arrival of astronomical spring and includes Easter time, and its motto is “Wake up and remember, hear and enjoy!”. This is the only festival in Latvia, where the focus is on a professional wind orchestra with its various forms – Orchestra “Rīga” – both as a modern, contemporary brass concert orchestra (symphonic band) and as a big band, which, in interaction with other brilliant performing artists and conductors, aims to complement cultural in Latvia and internationally, with content unique to its industry and region, contribution of creativity and creative excellence.