The first month of spring – March – will be filled with concerts, dance performances and theatre productions of various genres and styles at the Concert Hall “Latvija” and the Theatre House “Jūras vārti”.
On the first day of March, both halls invite you to events. At 18.00, in the Green Room of the Concert Hall “Latvija” a concert conversation with the songwriter and performer, Arvis Sanders from Ventspils will take place. At 19.00, the Theatre House “Jūras vārti” will host the song cycle “Bird Songs” by Raimonds Pauls and Guntars Račs, performed by children of the vocal ensemble “Dzeguzīte” and folk dance ensemble “Dzintariņš”, as well as singing actors. On Saturday, 2 March at 18.00, folk dance groups will unite on the stage of the Theatre House in the concert “Welcome to Wonderland”. Two more dance concerts will take place at “Jūras vārti” in March. On Saturday, 9 March at 16.00, the dance studio “Prieks” invites you to a contemporary dance performance “We are coming”, which will also be told by the dance studios “Skorpions” and “Deguntiņš uz augšu”, as well as the students of the dance group “Dance Company”. The very next day, at 15.00, the dance studio “KPD” will hold a debut concert with all the school’s groups performing different dance styles – hip-hop, contemporary, show dance, high heels and tango.
On Sunday, 3 March at 15.00, singer Dzintars Čīča will return to the stage of the Theatre House “Jūras vārti” with the concert “I love you so”, and on Friday, 8 March at 19.00, the band “Credo” will also perform a programme dedicated to ladies “Women – Our Beauty and Joy”.
On 10 March at 13.00, the popular concert cycle “Organ Music on Sunday” will once again be performed at the Concert Hall “Latvija”. In the concert “I Believe in the Untold”, the great musicians Kristīne Adamaite (organ), Jolanta Strikaite (soprano) and Artis Sīmanis (saxophone) will perform works by this year’s jubilarians Jānis Lūsēns and Rihards Dubras, while the music of Johann Sebastian Bach will provide a counterpoint to the Latvian sound patterns.
The concert season at the Theatre House “Jūras vārti” will continue with a spectacular blues evening, because with the Latvian Blues Band it couldn’t be any other way! This time, on Tuesday, 12 March at 19.00, Latvian bluesmen will perform together with the brilliant blues soloist Adeama Walkoviak from Great Britain.
In mid-March, the Concert Hall “Latvija” will host the “Organ Days 2024” organised by the Ventspils Music School, which will include masterclasses and musical encounters, as well as exciting concerts. On Thursday, 14 March at 19.00, they will be set off by a concert performed by Vita Kalnciema, professor and head of the organ class at the J. Vitols Latvian Academy of Music. The varied programme includes masterpieces by the great masters of Baroque music as well as compositions from the 20th century. On Friday, 15 March at 19.00, Aigars Reinis (organ), Aigars Raumanis (saxophone) and Ernests Mediņš (percussion) will invite the audience to get into the jazz mood, offering jazz sonatas, blues, South American rhythms and improvisations.
On Thursday, 14 March at 19.00, at the Theatre House “Jūras vārti”, the popular singing actor Jānis Paukštello will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his creative work in a concert together with his friends. On Sunday, 17 March, the Theatre House will be taken over by the rock opera “Sphinx” by Jānis Lūsēns, Māra Zālīte and director Rēzija Kalniņa, which will be performed twice – at 14.00 and 18.00.
On Friday, 22 March at 19.00, the Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Riga and the French flautist Vincent Lucas under the baton of conductor Aivis Greters invite you to the Concert Hall “Latvija”. The concert will include Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Mozart’s Flute Concerto and Jēkabs Jančevskis’ new piece “Concert Overture for Chamber Orchestra”.
The month will continue with two different women’s stories at the Theatre House “Jūras vārti”. On Saturday, 23 March at 14.00 and 18.00, Baiba Sipeniece-Gavare and the improvisational theatre “Divas” (Anete Bendika and Elīna Geida) will offer positively recharging and entertaining humour. On Tuesday, 26 March at 18.00, the Valmiera Drama Theatre will perform “Mourning Becomes Electra” at the Theatre House “Jūras vārti”. The production by director Inese Mičule won the 2022/2023 season’s “Spēlmaņu nakts” Awards in the following categories: “Young Stage Artist of the Year” – Diāna Krista Stafecka for the role of Lavinia Mannon and “Set Designer of the Year” – Mārtiņš Vilkārsis.
Finally, on the First Easter Sunday, 31 March at 16.00, the musicians Māris Blāze and Artis Šimpermanis invite you to a concert “Once on the Kurzeme Coast” at the Theatre House “Jūras vārti”.
From 16 March, two new exhibitions will be on show in the exhibition halls of the Theatre House – “Theatre in Pictures” by Vilis Daudziņš and “Balletomania” by Arnis Martinelli. Both continue the theme of the stage, which was already started in the exhibition “Freeze Frame at the Opera” at the beginning of the year, and which in turn coincides with the anniversary season of “Jūras vārti” – this year marks 15 years since the ambitious reconstruction of the Theatre House.
Tickets for the events can be purchased at the box offices of the Theatre House “Jūras vārti” and the Concert Hall “Latvija”, as well as other “Biļešu paradīze” outlets and online at www.bilesuparadize.lv.
The full programme of events can be found on the websites jurasvarti.lv and koncertzalelatvija.lv.
