At the end of 2024, the Liepāja Symphonic New Year's Eve Concert will swirl in passionate tango rhythms together with the world-famous accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, the young and talented violinist Elza Siliņa and the virtuoso dancer Artūrs Nīgalis.
Liepāja Symphonic New Year's Eve Concert has become a beautiful and sparkling tradition at the turn of the year celebrations, always resulting in a full house at the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall, gathering music and celebration lovers from all over Latvia and neighbouring countries.
In the past the New Year’s Eve programme has already taken the audience on musical journeys to Vienna, New York and Spain, and this year the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of its chief conductor Guntis Kuzma, will invite you on a journey to distant Argentina, which is famous for its passionate tango rhythms and melodies.
In three festive concerts taking place on December 28, 29 and 30 in the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall, the musical core will be the most famous compositions of the tango king Astor Piazzolla, complemented by the music in tango mood created by Carlos Gardel, Anibal Troilo, as well as Arturo Marquez, Franck Angelis, George Gershwin and Arturs Maskats.
Ksenija Sidorova is known as the Princess of the Accordion and the world's most significant ambassador of the accordion in the 21st century, whose brilliant technical mastery and emotionally intense sense of music gives the audience unforgettable experience.
“Sidorova has the sort of virtuosity that is revelatory, in the proper sense of the word. She makes you aware that the accordion can be as lyrically graceful as a violin, and is also capable of producing bewitchingly strange, modern-music sounds," writes the british media “The Telegraph”.
According to the critics, Ksenija Sidorova's music album “Piazzolla Reflections” released in 2021 was described as “brilliantly played and beautifully recorded” (Gramophone) and ranked among the best new classical music albums of the year (The Classic Review) and named “BR Klassik” album of the month.
“Clearly a master of the instrument, Sidorova draws out an amazing variety of colors and textures from these pieces. She captures every subtle change in inflection, articulation, and mood: wistful and fragile one moment, sultry and lavish the next,” "The Classic Review" writes about the artist's performance in Astor Piazzolla's music album.
Her previous releases have also gained huge success: Classical Accordion (2011) and Fairy Tales (2013), recorded with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Carmen (2016), for which she won an ECHO Award in 2017 as the Best Instrumentalist of the Year.
Dancer Artūrs Nīgalis will embody the emotions filling the Liepāja Symphony New Year's Eve concert in dance moves.
The concert programme will also feature the performance of the brilliant violinist Elza Siliņa, who in the spring of 2024 won the Valdis Vikmanis Latvian Young Artist Competition, gaining the opportunity to participate in the Liepāja International Star Festival opening concert by playing the 1st movement of Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. For this performance she was nominated for the prestigious Latvian public media award “Kilogram of Culture” in the “Start” category.
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.
