Riga Early music Festival

Riga Early Music Festival feels like a home – a place where both audiences and artists return with joy, to regain harmony, draw inspiration, and, for a moment, step into the world of refined and highly educated Baroque-era courtiers. Most importantly, it is a space where visitors are pleasantly surprised to discover how much there still is to uncover, and how vividly we can view the seemingly familiar through a fresh, historically informed perspective.All festival concerts are performed exclusively on original historical instruments or their precise copies. The singers master the art of Baroque ornamentation and rhetoric, dispelling the myth that early music is something old-fashioned. Quite the opposite – thanks to the Riga Early Music Festival, Riga and Latvia have become one of the most significant centres of early music in Europe.So far, the festival has welcomed early-music interpreters from more than ten countries, including recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf, bassoonist Alberto Grazzi, historical keyboard specialists Gertruda Jerjomenko, Liene Madern-Stradiņa, Ernests Neimanis, Minyoung Kim, David Shemer, theorbist Mauro Pinciaroli, sopranos Heather Newhouse, Elīna Šimkus, countertenor Sergejs Jēgers, traverso player Aija Dimza, the historical wind ensemble Stadt-Hautboisten Riga, early-music ensembles The Beggar’s Ensemble, TutzFrequenz, Neymann Ensemble, BarrocoTout, as well as the Baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga and Baroque choir Collegium Choro Musici Riga.The festival’s artistic director is conductor Māris Kupčs, director - Aija Dimza.