On September 17 at 18:00 at the Liepāja Concert Hall “Lielais dzintars” with the participation of a trio of bright guest artists (organist Iveta Apkalna, flautist Dita Krenberga and pianist Reinis Zariņš), the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will open its 142nd concert season, which will mark a new chapter in the life of the oldest symphony orchestra in the Baltic States, since the versatile musician Guntis Kuzma will take the position of the chief conductor and artistic director.
The conductor and clarinettist Guntis Kuzma has vividly proved his talent in front of many orchestras. Since the season of 2014/2015 he has been the conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, in 2019 he conducted the Accademia Baltica Chamber Orchestra, he also regularly collaborates with other orchestras, including the Sinfonietta Riga and Sinfonia Concertante Chamber Orchestras.
Guntis Kuzma is a musician, who fears no challenge, judging from his active interest in contemporary music and premieres of a number of compositions by him both as a clarinettist and a conductor. In his interpretation the extremely complex opus Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and electronics by Pierre Boulez has experienced Latvian and Georgian premieres. In the year 2018 the artist was awarded the Great Music Award for two outstanding works: his interpretation of Ādolfs Skulte's Symphony No.5 at a “Major Concert of Latvian Symphonic Music”, conducting the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and Sebastian Fagerlund’s Clarinet concert performance, where Guntis Kuzma took the role of a soloist.
Besides playing the world's golden symphonic repertoire, the conductor has set the goal to expand the collection of Latvian music recordings and commission new pieces of Latvian music, thus continuing orchestra's long-standing work on the Liepāja instrumental concert and symphony series.
“The main idea here is for us to be able to constantly grow and play high-quality music, which is as diverse as possible. It would be great, if every concert for the orchestra was like a celebration that has never been experienced before,” says Guntis Kuzma, “I by no means believe that there is a need for a revolution, but more of an evolution, with an aim to develop what has already been started and try to achieve new qualities of playing, discover new music and build an even stronger bond with our loyal audience.”
The opening concert of the season taking place on September 17 will feature the world premiere of the ambitious Arturs Maskats’ Triple concert “Dances of Childhood Butterflies”, when world-class soloists, such as organist Iveta Apkalna, flautist Dita Krenberga and pianist Reinis Zariņš, will shine on the stage of the Concert Hall “Lielais dzintars” together with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra.
In the concert programme Guntis Kuzma has also included the opus by Juris Karlsons “El Cid. Dances of Life and Death”, premiered in 2008, and a self-made suite from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet “Romeo and Juliet”.
Tickets for the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra season opening concert are available in all “Biļešu Paradīze” ticket offices. There you can find also season tickets to the orchestra's autumn concerts.