Latvian violinist Baiba Skride and “Sinfonietta Riga” chamber orchestra to perform in Germany

Baiba Skride, whose playing has been compared to the voice of nature, currently lives in Hamburg and regularly performs throughout the world. At the concert on 9 March at the Laeiszhalle concert hall in Hamburg she will perform solo in the violin concerto Distant Light (Tālā gaisma) by Pēteris Vasks. This concerto written in 1997 is one of the world’s most often performed Latvian musical compositions. The composer himself will be present at the concert in Hamburg.

The programme will also feature several young Baltic composers – Justė Janulytė from Lithuania, Erkki-Sven Tüür from Estonia and Oskars Herliņš from Latvia – as well as works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn.

Sinfonietta Riga. SLLC "Latvijas koncerti" publicity photo

The second concert will take place on 14 March at the Hercules concert hall in the Munich Residenz. Baiba Skride will play Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous Violin concerto. The programme will also feature the string opus Musica dolorosa by Pēteris Vasks and classical symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn.

“During the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council we want to present the excellence and contemporaneity of Latvian art and music, including instrumental music. I am convinced that the concerts performed by Baiba Skride and the Sinfonietta Riga chamber orchestra in Germany will be a brilliant affirmation of Latvia’s performing arts tradition,” says the Head of the Latvian Presidency public diplomacy and cultural programme, Selga Laizāne.

In 2001, the Riga-born violinist Baiba Skride won the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Music Competition in Brussels. Since then she has performed on a regular basis with the world’s most prestigious orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and many more. Baiba has collaborated with numerous conductors, including Charles Dutoit, Thierry Fischer, Paavo and Neeme Järvi, Andris Nelsons and Kirill Petrenko. Baiba also performs chamber music concerts with her pianist sister, Lauma Skride.

The concerts performed by Baiba Skride and Sinfonietta Riga form part of the Latvian EU Council Presidency cultural programme that consists of almost 200 events worldwide.