Summer Solstice Evening in Mežotne

On June 21st, on the banks of the River Lielupe, the Vasks Foundation will host the concert 'Summer Solstice Evening in Mežotne,' featuring the quartet 'RIX' and the emerging opera singer Brigita Čirkše (soprano). The concert program will include a piece created with the support of the State Cultural Capital Fund - composer Selga Mence's folk song arrangement 'It Was All Midsummer Night' for voice and piano quartet, Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, and the Piano Quartet op. 41 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

The Peteris Vasks Foundation always introduces the audience to new talents, and this year it will be the aspiring opera singer Brigita Čirkše. Currently, she is mastering the vocal art at the Florence Conservatory (Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini Firenze) and the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy, as well as participating in two productions at the Latvian National Opera - the staging of Franz Lehár's operetta 'The Merry Widow' and the revived staging of Jānis Lūsēns' 'Bird Opera'.

The 'RIX' piano quartet was founded in 1993 when violist Ilze Kļava, cellist Reinis Birznieks, and violinist Sandis Šteinbergs met in pianist and professor Jānis Maļeckis' chamber ensemble class at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy. The quartet members gather a few times a year in Riga to rehearse, perform, and record concert programs. In 2015, the 'RIX' quartet presented Peteris Vasks' music at the prestigious 'Phillips Collection' concert series in Washington, D.C.