Jazz Artist Contest
RIGA JAZZ STAGE
Jazz Artist Contest
RIGA JAZZ STAGE
Jazz Artist Contest
RIGA JAZZ STAGE
Riga Jazz Stage winner Louise Balkwill will perform at the 23rd international improvisation, jazz and global music festival Rīgas Ritmi, which will take place this year from July 5 to July 8.
The 23rd international improvisation, jazz and global music festival Rīgas Ritmi will take place from July 5 to July 8 this year. Artists from Cuba, Switzerland, Mozambique, Spain, France, Denmark and the United Kingdom will come to Riga, but the main Latvian artist at the festival will be Maestro Raimonds Pauls, who together with the chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga will premiere the symphonic jazz program Songs Without Words.
Continuing the rearranging of Latvian folk music and the compositions by legendary Latvian composers in the jazz genre, the album Latgalian Evergreens by the Māris Briežkalns quintet dedicated to the Latgale region in Latvia has been released.
2022 was a productive jazz year for Riga. From April 7 to 9, the Splendid Palace cinema hosted the largest international competition of jazz artists Riga Jazz Stage so far, from June 29 to July 2 - the International Improvisation, Jazz and Global Music Festival Rīgas Ritmi, but in autumn concerts of its Art of Riga Jazz concert series were held as well.
The international jazz artists competition Riga Jazz Stage 2023 planned for next April, in which young jazz artists vocalists and saxophonists should have participated this time, has been cancelled.
Baltic Jazz Trio is a collaboration of three outstanding jazz artists from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – Toivo Unt, Māris Briežkalns and Dainius Pulauskas accordingly. They will perform on October 15 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, USA, and on October 14 at Organization of American States hall as well to celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Baltic countries.
The autumn concert series Art of Riga Jazz of the international improvisation, jazz and global music festival Rīgas Ritmi will take place in November and December this year, where Spanish singer and trombonist Rita Payés, world-famous American bass guitarist Richard Bona together with Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, and the Italian new jazz band XY Quartet will delight lovers of high-quality jazz.
Louise Balkwill won first prize in the vocalist category of Riga Jazz Stage 2022 and will debut in Ronnie Scott’s club on 11th of September because of the special price in the contest.
The 22nd international improvisation, jazz and global music festival Rīgas Ritmi has ended. It took place in several places of the Latvian capital from June 29 to July 2, when the jazz greats Modern Standards Supergroup, the global music group Ayom from Portugal, the American singer Clark Beckham, the Latvian jazz-funk group Very Cool People with singer Paula Saija, British singer, multi-instrumentalist Xantoné Blacq and other colorful artists performed.
This year, three laureates of the international jazz artist competition Riga Jazz Stage 2022 – American drummer Domo Branch, Italian singer Valentina Fin and Latvian singer Paula Saija will also perform at the 22nd International Festival of Improvisation, Jazz and Global Music Rīgas Ritmi.