Latvians are nation of great singers and have fascinating choral culture, says acclaimed US composer Eric Whitacre who's in Riga as presenter of the Eurovision Choir of the Year competition taking place on July 22.
Author's articles
In preparation for the 2018 Song and Dance Festival, a new Latvian Radio strand featuring traditional Latvian songs aims to fill the gaps within everyone's singing repertoire. LSM will publish the most popular songs along with lyrics and a sense translation so guests to the country can sing along with Latvia at the time of its founding centenary.
Riga will be full with song this week as the Grand Prix of Nations Rīga 2017 and the 3rd European Choir Games have started on July 16.
In preparation for the 2018 Song and Dance Festival, a new Latvian Radio strand featuring traditional Latvian songs to fill the gaps within everyone's singing repertoire. LSM will publish the most popular songs along with lyrics and a sense translation so guests to the country can sing along with Latvia at the time of its founding centenary.
In preparation for the 2018 Song and Dance Festival, a new Latvian Radio strand featuring traditional Latvian songs to fill the gaps within everyone's singing repertoire. LSM will publish the most popular songs along with their lyrics and a sense translation so guests to the country can sing along with Latvia at the time of its founding centenary.
A Latvian National Theater guest performance at the US was cancelled after the performers were refused visas by the US Department of Homeland Security, say organizers. They were to to perform at the 16th Latvian Song Festival in Baltimore, Maryland this summer.
The LNK and RE&RE association of construction companies will rebuild the Mežaparks Open-air stage, reported Latvian Radio on April 18.
Even though the Mucenieki asylum seekers' center is open for almost 20 years, only recently has it become the focus of public attention, reported Latvian Radio Monday.
An exhibition showcasing manuscripts from the 14th to the 20th century is on show at the fifth floor of the National Library of Latvia. "Times Reflected in Ancient Manuscripts" features more than 100 manuscripts of both old religious text alongside letters penned by Latvian literati as well as one of the oldest manuscripts of the Latvian anthem.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Aleksandra Beļcova, a Latvian and Russian modern painter. For the next six months, the museum of the creative couple Romans Suta and Aleksandra Beļcova will be showcasing her work in 'The Word Belongs to a Woman'.
After coming across the trailer for the film Kurzeme Fortress, Latvian Radio contacted director Kelly Hetherington, discovering that he was inspired to become a filmmaker after learning the story behind the miraculous reunion of his Latvian grandparents.
Two construction companies have protested the tender regulation of the Mezaparks Open-air stage, slated to be rebuilt by June 7, 2018, in time for the next Song and Dance festival, reported Latvian Radio on February 14.
Building works to construct new educational facilities have unearthed a fascinating archaeological glimpse into the Latvia's 'Swedish times', when Riga was the largest city in the Swedish empire, LTV reported February 13.
The market share of local films grew from 3.8% to 7.4% in Latvia within the past year. Around 2,5 million people went to the movies last year, with 186,000 of them watching local productions, reported Latvian Radio on February 7.
Latvian characters are fairly common in world literature in cinema, and not only as Eastern European gangsters in second-rate crime flicks. They're also lawyers, dentists, hoteliers, bar owners, acrobats... and mice. Latvian American Rihards Kalniņš has been chronicling profiles of made up Latvians at Imaginarylatvians.com, reported Latvian Radio on February 4.
Latvia's famous English-language bookstore is asking visitors which work of Latvian literature they would like to see translated into English.
Churches, castles and fortresses across Latvia are hoping for a part of the €35m the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will allot for preserving cultural and natural heritage outside Rīga, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga in a story aired on January 12.
The planned Rīga concert hall will be built under a public-private partnership, the government decided on Tuesday. According to the plan, the state will attract an investor to build a complex with a conference center and a concert hall, with the state either renting or gradually buying back the concert hall, reported Latvian Radio Tuesday.
About 80% of Latvia's prisoners are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Despite security measures, many go on using banned substances while imprisoned. On Wednesday, an addiction treatment center is being opened at the Olaine prison, marking Latvia's first initiative to fight drug dependency in penitentiaries, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga.
An effort to make Riga more navigable for blind and partially-sighted people has come under scrutiny after members of public pointed out inconsistencies and potential dangers in the way the scheme has been implemented, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Thursday.
The Jelgava Palace, built for Duke of Courland Ernst Johann von Biron in the 18th century, is the largest architectural monument in the Baltics. Plans are in motion to reconstruct the crumbling facade of the building that houses the Latvia University of Agriculture.
At the opening of the Baltic Sea Documentaries festival on Wednesday, the K. Suns movie gallery screened Dugma: The Button (2016) directed by Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal, who flew in for the screening of the film amounting to an intimate portrait of would-be Al-Qaeda suicide bombers.
The renovated Aspazija and Rainis House, dedicated to two seminal figures of Latvian letters, will open September 10 as restoration has concluded, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Wednesday.
August 31 marks the day when roadworks on several of Rīga's main streets should be finished. Due to procurement delays, street repairs in Rīga have been held off, proving to be an annoyance to everyone involved--locals, visitors, construction companies, and Rīga officials alike.
A thick 15th-century Code of Canon Law is one of the most valuable books in the upcoming National Library of Latvia exhibition "Book in Latvia", to be opened August 29. It's so valuable, says Aija Taimiņa, a researcher at the University of Latvia, because it was owned by one Reinhold Soltrump, a bibliophile and the son of Rīga's chief magistrate.
The first non-practical literary work published in Latvia relates the story of the countess Genoveva who was falsely accused of indecency and infidelity. It was a bestseller throughout the latter half of the 19th century, says Lilija Limane, the head bibliographer at the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department of Latvia's National Library.
A church manual from 1615 is Rīga's earliest preserved printed work in Latvian. Its 360 pages feature gospels, psalms, choral songs along with 100 pictures and illustrations, Andris Vilks, director of the Latvian National Library told Latvian Radio for the strand featuring six books that shaped Latvian letters throughout the centuries.
"A Garden of Potatoes, which, so that Beloved Latvians of Vidzeme no Longer Famish Terribly, is Put Forth by One of Their Loyal Fellows," is the title of a Latvian-language potato growing manual published in 1790.
The first Bible in Latvian, translated by Ernst Glück and published in the late 17th century, was a great event for Latvian culture, Gustavs Strenga, leading researcher at the Latvian National Library looked at the book for the Latvian Radio strand showcasing six Latvian books from six centuries.
On August 22 President Raimonds Vējonis returned the Rīga Castle, the official residence of the President of Latvia. The Latvian flag has been raised again in the tower of the building, and the honorary guard have returned to their duties, reported Latvian Radio Monday.
The dainty Pulka street on the left bank of Daugava in Rīga will house an impressive repository complex, to be finished by spring 2018, holding the collections of four Latvian museums. The foundation stone of the new complex will be laid Thursday, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga.
Cemetery festivals are a little-known yet particularly remarkable tradition. A book featuring photos by Mārtiņš Grauds attempts to document the summertime celebrations that see Latvians flock to necropolises to tend relatives' graves and adorn them with fresh flowers and candles.