About festival

The Rīga Festival has been a steady component in the culture life of the Latvian capital since 2011. Each spring, it gathers the brightest local and foreign musicians, offering quality concert programs in a variety of styles. This year, the festival will take place from June 7 to 20 and invite audiences to experience six special music events not only in several culture venues in Rīga but also at the Dzintari Concert Hall in Jūrmala (all concerts will start at 8 p.m.).
On the night of June 7, the 2024 Rīga Festival will be opened by the Latvian Radio Choir with artistic leader Kaspars Putniņš. They are world-class stars of choir music, whose performance has also won them the prestigious Grammy award. The choir’s latest concert program Bezgalības krelles (The Beads of Eternity) is comprised of eight original works by several generations of Latvian composers featuring highly poetic texts by writer Nora Ikstena dedicated to the eight planets of the Solar System. 
The next concert of the festival, a Night of Jazz with Matīss Žilinskis on June 8, will be held at the Spīķeri Concert Hall. The young pianist and composer will collaborate with his experienced colleagues, contrabassist Andris Grunte and drummer Artis Orubs, to take us back into the memories, smells and tastes, senses, and adventures of childhood. 
The colorful duet of violinist Darja Smirnova and pianist Roksana Tarvide will invite all to the same venue on June 13 to give in to the French charm and immerse into a dream of summer in this mesmerizing land – iconic Paris and the sleepy Riviera, the Burgundy countryside, and the endless horizons of La Manche, in an exploration of the intricate works of Debussy, Franck, and Boulanger. 
On the night on June 15, we will hear symphonic partitures full of fiery dramatism and emotional bareness, breezy romanticism and uplifting hope, as the stage of the Dzintari Concert Hall will unite the passionately versatile chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga and pianist Georgijs Osokins, beloved by critics and audiences alike, as well as the conductor of the renowned Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra Amadeus – Anna Duczmal-Mróz. They will perform Piano Concerto No. 4 and Symphony No. 4 by the Viennese Classicist Beethoven as well as Musica appasionata by contemporary virtuoso Pēteris Vasks. 
The night of June 19 will be dedicated to the Radio SWH Jazz Club concert cycle established at the Spīķeri Concert Hall. This time, its special guests will be the phenomenal Cuban singer Daymé Arocena from Havana and France-based Danish jazz violinist Line Kruse, a bold challenger of boundaries in music. We will see both astonishing artists once more at the closing concert program of the festival on June 20, as the versatile musicians will collaborate with the powerful Latvian Radio Big Band at the Dzintari Concert Hall.