We are glad to welcome you to our city’s new and ambitious project – the international music festival and competition “Classic Strings”. Music is a universal language in any culture, and “Classic Strings” will not only bring delight to the hearts of music lovers from all over the world, but also provide the possibility to get to know Riga better, and discover the interesting cultural life of our city.
We are open to the world and glad to see young participants of the competition, as well as honoured jury members and brilliant musicians, who will perform during the festival. We are happy to see Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Great Guild and Latvian National Symphony Orchestra as partners of this project and hope that this collaboration will also continue in future projects to expand and promote classical music in our country.
Good luck to all participants and have a wonderful time in Riga!
Nils Ušakovs
Chairman of the Riga City Council
Dear friends!
We are glad to start a new project - Riga International Violin and Cello Competition and Festival! Riga is well known worldwide as a city with a deep cultural tradition. We can name great musicians, which were presented to the musical world by Latvian capital - violinists Philippe Hirshhorn, Oleg Kagan, Gidon Kremer, cellist Misha Maisky, conductors Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, singers Elīna Garanča, Inese Galante, composers Peteris Vasks, Georgs Pelecis, ballet dancers Maris Liepa, Mikhail Baryshnikov.
We have a hope, that this noble list will be increased in future with new names and we would be glad to be involved in it. Riga itself, charming city with wonderful architecture, will create an atmosphere for a real musical fest. Welcome to Riga, to our competition and festival, you will spend great time here and good luck to all participants!
Yours,
Karen Shahgaldyan
Artistic director
We are proud to announce that the First edition of “Classic Strings” Violin and Cello International Competition and Festival 2018 which the European Foundation for Support of Culture is organizing in the beautiful city of Riga. Latvia is an important international music centre – home of famous musicians, artists, and composers.
In 2018 Malta’s capital city Valletta is the European Capital of Culture and on this occasion, we are very happy that in the Final Round of the competition the compulsory composition will be by a very well-known contemporary Maltese composer Alexey Shor.
The mission of the European Foundation for Support of Culture through the presentation of this Festival is to re-discover, promote, support and document the great masters for string instruments while providing audiences with a unique musical experience; to build the audiences of the future to help ensure the very existence of classical music.
With so many artistic achievements to its credit, the European Foundation for Support of Culture looks forward towards the continued success of its classical music projects in the future.
I welcome all participants to “Riga Classic Strings” International Festival and I wish everyone good luck and success.
