EVENT GUIDE

ESTONIA

Open until Oct. 2, Exhibition “Familiar and Unfamiliar Physics,” Illustrations by Ulo Sooster, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu
The exhibition of the works by Ulo Sooster “Familiar and Unfamiliar Physics” comprises a unique example of book illustrations preserved in a complete set of original drawings. These drawings were made in Moscow in 1963, for the popular science book “Physics: Near and Far” (Moscow, 1963). The idea for the book was an attempt to create a dialogue between the worldview at the time of its creation and today’s viewers/readers. In his drawings, Sooster has played with a variety of images and fields of meaning. His visual solutions for representing concepts of physics are an intriguing, unexpectedly intelligent and visually distinctive material of great cultural importance. The exhibition consists of 118 illustrations, the original book, some drawings from the museum’s deposit collection, and a video interview with the original book author/compiler Viktor Trostnikov. For more information on the exhibition please visit: www.tartmus.ee
Sept. 9 – Oct. 30, Mare Balticum, Kumu Art Museaum, Tallinn

Mare Balticum is an artistic exploration of the underwater soundscape of the Baltic Sea. The sound installation is based on a selection of sounds recorded during a scientific investigation conducted in 2014 and 2015 by BIAS: Baltic Sea Information on the Acoustic Soundscape. Collected from 38 hydrophones, these recordings were made at exactly the same moment every hour, each day, for a year; this sonic map of the Baltic enables scientists to measure the effects of human-induced sound in the ocean. In Mare Balticum, fragments of this comprehensive material have been combined in order to create one continuous, synchronised portrait of the Baltic Sea as perceived from multiple locations at a number of specific yet contiguous moments. In the sound installation, each loudspeaker represents a specific place in the Baltic where sound recordings were made. Distinct places bleed into one another in the sound installation, sometimes acting as solitary voices and sometimes as ensembles. Together, they constitute a geographic choreography that invites the visitor to move from place to place. Detailed description is available at: www.kumu.ekm.ee

Sept. 16 – Oct. 30, Autumn Jazz Festival 2016, various locations
The festival presents international and local stars who get on the stages in different locations to spice up the dark autumn. This year, Sugisjazz presents a number of exciting performers from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Brazil, and France. For detailed festival program and tickets please visit: www.jazzkaar.ee

Sept. 27, Concert of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London), Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
This year, the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 70th anniversary. Conducted by Charles Dutoit, one of the great contemporary conductors, the RPO operates at London’s Cadogan Hall and gives extremely popular concerts at the famous Royal Albert Hall, at Royal Festival Hall, and at many other prestigious halls around the world. The Royal London Philharmonics are visiting Estonia for the first time. The concert program includes music pieces by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Brahms. To buy tickets please go to: www.concert.ee

Sept. 29, Jazz Concert “Belle Epoque” (France), Parnu Concert Hall, Parnu
Accordionist Vincent Peirani and saxophonist Emile Parisien seem to have been winning all France’s jazz prizes lately. This set of cleverly conceived duets is full of subtle backward glances to the French jazz tradition. Using the lightest of touches, they evoke the spirit of the original, but also suggest the distance separating that era from today. To buy tickets please go to: www.concert.ee

Open until Nov. 27, Exhibition “Wanderlust — the Fishing Trips of Hiiumaa People,” Long House of the Museum of Hiiumaa
The exhibition introduces the fishing trip traditions characteristic to Hiiumaa people throughout the centuries and thereby a piece of a fisherman’s everyday life. Hiiumaa people travelled to Parnu, northern coast of Saaremaa as well as beaches of Northern Estonia in search of fish. New times brought newer and bigger ships and new fishing locations. Come and look for yourself how the centuries-old tradition changed over time! More information on the exhibition can be found at: www.muuseum.hiiumaa.ee

LATVIA
Sept. 23, Sinfonietta Riga Season Opening Concert, Great Guild, Riga
The new season for the Sinfonietta Riga chamber orchestra will begin with the “Great” symphony by the sincere Austrian composer Franz Schubert and with Learning about Acoustics by the untamed Latvian experimenter Kristaps Petersons. This is a chamber symphony that was composed for the unique and multi-layer architectural ensemble of the Spilve airport. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be represented with its concerto symphony, in which tense dramaturgy is merged with the unending virtuosity of an instrumental concerto. It balances the pain of the heart of the romantic composer and the soaring sounds of the master of acoustics. The soloists will be the two outstanding chamber musicians from the Artemis string quartet from Berlin — violinist Vineta Sareika, who is always welcome in Latvia, and the violinist and violist Gregor Sigl, who trained at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Tickets can be purchased at: www.bilesuparadize.lv

Sept. 24, Mikelis Day Fair in the Old Town, Dome Square, Riga
Mikelis Day is a harvest festival, the autumnal equinox when the sun turns towards winter and when day and night are of equal length — the start of the astronomical autumn. It is a significant moment for each farmer since the most important farm work has been completed. Mikelis Day coincides with the most abundant season and therefore is also a harvest festival. Mikelis Day Fair is an annual event where visitors can enjoy/buy seasonal homegrown products and arts and crafts. At the fair, you are offered to taste and buy various rural goods — apples, pumpkins, cranberries, herbal teas, honey, bread, and bacon, as well as mushroom baskets, clay pots and other Latvian crafts. Open from 09:00 to 17:00, the fair welcomes everyone at the Dome Square to listen to live music and dance. Entrance is free.

Sept. 25, Autumnal Equinox Festival, Ethnographic Open Air Museum, Riga
Autumn Solstice, or the day of Mikelis, is associated with the completion of fieldwork, a harvest festival, rich feast, and loud rejoicing. This is the most popular time to celebrate marriage. Open from 10:00 to 16:00, the festival will be enriched with the varied fair offering autumn harvest bounties and products made by craftsmen. Traditional pub and market music makers. Do not miss the chance to enjoy the delicious pumpkin soup! Additional information is available at: www.brivdabasmuzejs.lv

Oct. 2, Raimonds Pauls’s Live Concert, Culture Centre “Ziemelblazma,” Riga
Ziemelblazma Community Centre is certainly thinking big for its 103rd birthday celebration, having engaged the one and only Raimonds Pauls in a program of his early pop songs performed by the vocal group “Framest” (arrangements by musical director Janis Kirsis). For more information please contact: http://ziemelblazma.riga.lv/en/contacts

Sept. 30, Autumn Chamber Music Festival, Quatuor Ebene (France), Dzintari Concert hall, Jurmala
French music is not only the carefree chanson or Moulin Rouge. It is also represented by Quatuor Ebene (Ebene Quartet) — the unique string quartet based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. The group is known for its versatility and performs a variety of genres, such as classical music, contemporary music, jazz, and crossover. The New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn highlighted the group’s versatility, describing the group as “a string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band.” Quatuor Ebene are Pierre Colombe /violin/, Gabriel Lemagadir /violin/, Andrian Buasso /viola/, and Raphael Merlin /cello/. In Jurmala, they will be playing selections from Ludwig von Beethoven and Claude Debussy. For more information on concert and ticket purchase go to: www.latvijaskoncerti.lv

LITHUANIA
Sept. 22 – Oct. 2, Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, cinema theatres in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipeda
Vilnius Documentary Film Festival (VDFF) is an international documentary film festival launched in 2004 in Lithuania, and is the oldest documentary film platform in the Baltics. The festival has continually supported the diversity of creative documentaries by composing rich and captivating program. The festival has always been searching for a dialogue with its audience; therefore, various discussions are organised to bring the spectators together with the filmmakers and to raise awareness of the fascinating possibilities of documentary film genre. The most recent internationally awarded documentaries are demonstrated every year, while a retrospective is dedicated to an acknowledged filmmaker. In this year’s retrospective the audience will have a chance to discover films by Czech filmmaker Helena Trestikova, and the Baltic documentary film programme will introduce a retrospective of Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Audrius Stonys. For more information on program please visit: www.vdff.lt

Sept. 24 – Oct. 4, Sirenos 2016, various locations in Vilnius
Sirenos is the largest international theatre festival in Lithuania. It presents contemporary European and world theatre novelties, the most interesting Lithuanian theatre phenomena, and offers a versatile educational program. The festival represents a contemporary theatre which is known for challenging and accepting challenges, promoting the partnership between different cultural institutions, and combining culture and business values. The 13th Vilnius International Theatre Festival Sirenos is back again, taking place at various venues. The festival aims to present a concise view of the most recent developments of Lithuanian theatre in the form of the Lithuanian showcase both to the Lithuanian theatre goers and international producers, theatre critics, festival and theatre directors and theatre lovers coming from abroad. During Sirenos 2016, seven performances of the International program shall take place in Vilnius with special Europolis program. Also, in the framework of the festival, reviews of documentaries and dramaturgical texts are foreseen, creative workshops and International conference of young theatre critics. Foreign theatre experts shall be presented with Lithuanian theatre panorama; also, traditional meetings with foreign theatre creators shall take place. More information on the festival program and tickets is available at: www.sirenos.lt

Sept. 24, Vilnius Fireworks 2016, Vingio Parkas, Vilnius
Look up to the sky, open your hearts to music and beauty. The biggest firework display of the year, always spectacular and featuring masters of the firework arts from all over Europe, Lithuanian fireworks festival Vilnius Fejerija 2016 invites everyone to watch the spectacular firework colours and patterns performed by the three teams of pyrotechnicians. Each team’s musical firework display will consist of three parts: at first, the teams will create firework displays with the same music (this year’s selected theme are the hits by Queen), then, the fireworks will be accompanied by the music representing each country’s national individuality, and in the end, there will be freestyle fireworks programme accompanied by the selected music. The evening will be crowned with demo show performed by Lithuanian pyrotechnics and fireworks professionals BLIKAS and will present a lot of surprises. Visiting this unique event is a must! For more information on the event please visit: www.fejerija.lt

Sept. 9 – Oct. 9, Exhibition “Sing me to Sleep,” National Gallery of Arts, Vilnius
This Lithuanian-British art project is an international artistic collaboration between people who face poverty and homelessness. Their work with professional artists began in Vilnius and Manchester in Nov. 2015, to take a transformative journey, exploring the tangled forests of fairytale, childhood, and their current life. The “Sing me to Sleep” exhibition is a journey through a fairytale forest as if through the homeless life — facing shadows that carry bits of some long forgotten riddles, embraced with the sounds of words, cries and laughter, leaving no place untouched, filled with an uncertain perception of what is small and what is big, light or dark, good or bad, real or imaginary. The project draws attention to the importance of creative arts activity in the lives of people that live in the margins of society. The project also expands understanding of homelessness by presenting the participants’ thoughts about values of our common humanity — home, feelings of safety, health, solitude, and the value of taking walks together and walking together in life. For more information about the project please visit: www.ndg.lt, www.menasgerovei.lt, and www.arthur-and-martha.blogspot.lt