Ticket sales for the 32nd Liepāja International Stars Festival concerts, which will take place next spring, from 9 March to 23 March, have started, and the first artists to perform at the festival have been announced.
At the Liepāja International Stars Festival opening concert on 9 March 2024, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Guntis Kuzma will be joined on stage of the “Great Amber” Concert Hall by the Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, who has built his career for more than three decades as one of the most versatile pianists in the world.
Lortie has established long-term cooperation with such renowned ensembles as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchester National de France, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many others.
At the Liepāja International Star Festival opening concert Louis Lortie will play Frederic Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1, composed in 1831 and premiered in Paris, gaining huge success.
For the second year already, at the opening concert of the Liepāja International Stars Festival the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will be joined on stage by the winners of Valdis Vikmanis’ Latvian Young Artist Competition.
The programme of the Liepāja International Star Festival 2024 includes five concerts, so the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy symphonic music composed by Frederic Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Pēteris Vasks. Such events as the Chamber Jazz Music Night and Piano Music Solo Night featuring music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Chopin will be held in the Chamber Hall named after Dzintars Jurgelaitis of the Concert Hall “Great Amber”.
At the end of the Liepāja International Star Festival this time we will hear the “Requiem” by the brilliant Italian opera genius Giuseppe Verdi – a monumental piece of spiritual vocal and instrumental music, in which the composer has put all his talent as a genius melodist and master of musical form dramaturgy.
In the grand festival closing concert programme the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Atvars Lakstīgala will perform before the audience accompanied by the outstanding soloists and its long-time partner, the State Academic Choir “Latvija”.
LIEPĀJA INTERNATIONAL STARS FESTIVAL will be held for the twenty-eighth year in a row. Once as the International Piano Stars Festival it was started in 1993 by former artistic director of Liepāja Symphony Orchestra – Imants Resnis. There have been more than 170 pianists participating from all of the world − Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia. We have had the privilege of seeing such high class artists as Julian Joseph, Mikhail Voskresensky, Freddy Kempf, Noriko Ogawa, Robert Mitchell, Christina Ortiz, Dmitrij Bashkirov, Stanislav Igolinsky, Brigitte Engerer, Lazar Berman, Rolando Luna, Chano Dominguez, Eldar Djangirov and many more.
During the closure of the 23rd International Piano Stars Festival Uldis Lipskis, Board member of Liepāja Symphony Orchestra pointed out that the festival will have its rebirth in the coming year, acquiring a broader scope and featuring not only pianists but also outstanding singers and virtuosos of other instruments to attract even greater audiences. Therefore this is no longer the International Piano Stars Festival, but the Liepāja International Stars Festival.
Tickets for the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concerts can be purchased at “Biļešu paradīze” ticket offices.
The Concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the State Cultural Capital Foundation and Liepāja City.