Chamber music days in Ventspils | Organ music programme “Zem mēness” (Under the Moon)
Performances: by the organ duo Ilze and Aigars Reinis, and students of the Ventspils Music School: Endia Auna, Elīna Bērziņa, Līva Rozenberga, Vanesa Līga Rozentāle.
The programme features compositions by : M. Duruflé, J. Rutter, M. Pētersone, R. Jermaks, R. Dubra, etc.
Organised by the Ventspils Music School, supported by the Ventspils State City Municipality Council.
Tickets available at “Biļešu paradīze” and HERE. Ticket price: EUR 5.00
Ventspils Music High School has been organizing the Ventspils Chamber Music Days since 2015, when the festival gathered Latvian musicians studying at European music universities – then the concerts were filled with youthful enthusiasm and courage to take a step into the unknown. Over the years, the festival has turned into a collaborative event for professionals – teachers and their partners in chamber music. The students of the school are not excluded either, or at least some of the best of them. The concert series of Ventspils Chamber Music Days is united by the idea of a school that is a gateway to the world of music – Ventspils Music High School is a platform of creativity for the participants, teachers, students, graduates and their old and recently met musical friends of the festivals, concerts and master classes it organizes.
Ilze Reine about this program: “It is not worth playing for organists in a duet, if it cannot achieve more color and power, more surprises and brightness – this is the belief of the organ duo Ilze Reine & Aigars Reinis, therefore the musicians choose their repertoire very carefully and with great responsibility focuses on recording the concert program, thus implementing its motto: What does it mean for us to play in a duet? It is a meeting of two personalities in music – bringing together both their experience as a soloist and the masculine and feminine vision of the world. The individual mastery of each artist helps to reveal vivid possibilities of the organ’s sound and repertoire, which a solo organist cannot do. It is an organ – an orchestra that plays and plays, decorates and plays, conjures and unites, dreams and constructs – everything that musicians can do and even more – double!”.
Organist Ilze Reine, organ teacher at Ventspils Music High School, since 1996 has been a member of the Riga St. John’s Church organist and choir conductor. At the same time, she also started teaching in the educational institutions of the Lutheran Church, since 2000 she has been an organ teacher in the music department of the Lutheran Academy of Lutheran University, later also a teacher of liturgical organ and improvisation at the Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Academy of Music.
She studied the organ at Jāzepa Vītola’s Academy of Music of Latvia (bachelor’s degree obtained in 1997, master’s degree in 1999) and Church Music University in Herford, Germany (1993-1995). She expanded her knowledge in the master classes of Jon Laukvik, Harald Vogel, Olivier Latri, Ben van Oosten, at the Stuttgart and Haarlem International Organ Academy.
Performed with concert programs in Latvia, many European countries, Russia, Japan. Along with organ solo programs, he collaborates with soloists (Sergejs Jēgers, countertenor; Jānis Porietis, trumpet, Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa, soprano; Ieva Pudāne, flute, etc.) and Latvian professional collectives – Latvian Radio Choir, VAK Latvija, professional wind orchestra Riga. Participates in baroque music performances in the basso continuo group of the Sinfonietta Riga orchestra.
Organist Aigars Reinis is the music director of Riga Cathedral, organist of the cathedral since 2019. Before that, he worked as the organist of the Old Church of St. Gertrude in Riga and the artist of the Latvian Radio Choir.
Born in Jelgava, studied organ playing, music pedagogy and choir conducting classes at Jelgava College of Music. He studied the organ at the Jāzeps Vītolas Academy of Music of Latvia under prof. T. Deksņa, where he also completed his master’s degree.
1997-1998 in 2010 he studied organ playing with prof. L.Lomann (Germany), H.U.Erikson, H.Hellsten (Sweden), as well as at Upland International Organ Academy. A.Reinis has successfully participated in competitions for young choir conductors, the International Organ Competition in Lahti (Finland) and the Erfurt Organ Competition in Germany (1999). Gave concerts in Latvia, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Sweden.
Performed in Latvia with the leading professional collectives VAK Latvija, Latvian Radio Choir, LNSO, premiered by R. Dubras, M. Pētersones, K. Pētersonas, S. Ratnieces, G. Pelēča, etc. compositions. Received the “Great Music Award 2019” for outstanding work in the ensemble and the “Great Music Award 2021” for outstanding performance throughout the year.
The organ class of Ventspils Music High School has flourished magnificently thanks to the creation of favorable conditions. Motivated students and teachers, a unique stave instrument with a movable playing table in the Baltics, the support of industry representatives and financiers allow us to talk about a really positive dynamic and, in the words of Aigars Reiņš, Ventspili as – along with Riga Cathedral – the center of Latvian organ music. This Ventspils Chamber Music Days organ music concert will be another step up – on the way to the prosperity of organ music and music culture in general in Ventspils and throughout Latvia.
