Event Guide

  • 2017-09-27

ESTONIA

October 03-09, Seto Culture Week, Setomaa 

Every municipality in Setomaa will be hosting cultural events during the week, with people of all ages welcome to take part, from kindergarten children to adults. There will be a range of workshops, competitions, quizzes and dance clubs, as well as celebrations of Peko Day and a conference. The program for the week is yet to be finalized. For more information please contact 

[email protected] 

 

October 05-17, Festival Golden 

Mask in Estonia 2017, Tallinn and Tartu 

The festival Golden Mask in Estonia is the most important cultural event of the year, interest towards which unites the Estonian and Russian audience. The festival presents the nominees and winners of the recent seasons of the Russian theatre festival Golden Mask. All the performances have simultaneous translation into Estonian. Find out more about the festival at www.goldenmask.ee

 

Open till October 08, Exhibition Image Drain, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn

Image Drain, the main exhibition of contemporary art biennial Tallinn Photomonth, will be opened till 8th October at Tallinn Art Hall and Museum of Photography, with the participation of 13 artists from all over the world. The exhibition, curated by Anthea Buys, combines artworks with a fictional story about a Russian businessman, his dreams and his interest in the technology of photography. In today’s era of total saturation with images, the outlines of the photograph have blurred completely. A photographic image used to be a unique wonder, the creation of which required minutes, if not hours to be spent in the darkroom. Nowadays, taking a picture is as simple as pressing a button and the result can be seen by countless people all over the world. What is a true photo, then? Is it an image on paper or pixels on a glowing screen? And what is that gleam you see in front of your eyes, when you close them before falling asleep? Osip Mandelstam is faced with a similar question, as he wakes up one morning, sees a colorful flowery pattern before his eyes, and does not know how it got there. Is it a memory of some photo or is his unconscious playing tricks on him? Who knows if in the future we will still be looking at photos with our eyes, or would we see them as mental images, or sense them as a taste on the tips of our tongues? The exhibition is accompanied by an informational booklet that includes descriptions of the art pieces, the curatorial essay and a work of fiction about Osip Mandelstam. Learn more about the exhibition at www.kunstihoone.ee 

 

October 06-08, 8th International 

Author’s Song Festival Fall of the Leaf Music 2017, Tartu 

International Author’s Song Festival is a real treat for listeners and performers of the author’s song genre. The festival holds a solid place among similar festivals of the world. Well-known and talented bards with a long and successful career in the genre perform at the Fall of the Leaf Music festival. Performers from faraway countries and different places of the world come to the festival. Please go to www.mellnovfest.com to get more information. 

 

October 09-29, 6th Priit Parn Animated Film Festival PPAFF 2017, Tapa parish, Tapa

The festival offers workshops and seminars, and screenings of animation, which have had successful festival runs, by both Estonian and world renowned animators. The films of the festival can be seen all over Estonia. Additional information: Indrek Jurtšenko, +372 529 0785, [email protected] Find out more at www.ppaff.eu 

 

October 12-14, Tallinn Fashion Week, Vaba Lava, Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn

At the autumn series of TFW, the award Golden Needle will be presented. The coveted fashion design award Golden Needle is presented to an outstanding fashion designer or brand for consistency in creation during the last five years. The quality, functionality, beauty and contemporaneity of collections, also success in business and export are taken into consideration. Learn more at www.estonianfashion.eu 

 

October 12-15, 

International Tartu Early Music Festival, Tartu

The festival is focused on Asian culture and its relations with early European, primarily Medieval culture. The goal is to create an artistic whole in which the topics are handled in depth from different viewpoints. Typical to this festival is a double concert format, with an ensemble from Europe playing in the first part and an ensemble from Asia playing in the second part and a final joint improvisation of both ensembles. Tartu Early Music Festival is an interdisciplinary event bringing together concerts, performances, exhibitions, lectures, study sessions and master classes. Learn more about the festival and the program at the official web site www.festivitas.ee

 

LATVIA

 

October 05, 

Autumn Chamber Music Festival, Belcea Quartet, Haydn, Ligeti and Dvorak, Dzintari Concert Hall, Jurmala

The driving force behind the Belcea Quartet is its founder, the temperamental Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, who ensures the flourishing of the philosophically spiritual Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, the touchingly serious French violinist Axel Schacher, and his compatriot, the humor-filled cellist Antoine Lederlin. Equally colorful and diverse is the repertoire, with one of the very first string quartets by the Czech romanticist Dvorak, as inspired by the “father of the quartet,” Haydn, as well as an early masterpiece produced by Ligeti on the basis of folk music from Hungary. More info on the concert can be found at www.latvijaskoncerti.lv and to buy tickets please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

 

October 07, Ball at Ziemelblazma, Culture Centre Ziemelblazma, Riga

The annual dance ball has become an anticipated tradition over the years. Performing at this year’s ball will be Diana Pirags together with the Mirage Jazz Orchestra group. The program will include a wide range of dance styles – foxtrot, rumba, cha-cha-cha, slow waltz, quickstep, samba, jive, Viennese waltz and tango. The Mirage Jazz Orchestra is an experienced orchestra which has performed at countless balls, and whose repertoire is made up of various different types of musical styles – starting from jazz classics all the way to well known pop music melodies. The orchestra has performed concerts all over Latvia, as well as at many international jazz festivals. The orchestra has also performed together with such well-known musicians as Pascal von Wroblewsky and Ola Onabule, as well as many of Latvia's best known musicians such as: Intars Busulis, Laima Racenaja, Normunds Rutulis, Andris Erglis, Inga Berzina, Jolanta Gulbe, Aija Vitolina and others. There will be a buffet working as well. To book a table please call +371 67848849, and to buy tickets please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

 

Open till October 08, Eleonora Pastare’s Solo Exhibition 

Meditations, Porcelain Museum, Riga

Meditative power and complete control of the material is required to deal with the most sophisticated ceramic material and create fragile, volatile and charming porcelain artworks. Although Eleonora Pastare turned to porcelain in relatively recent times, after enthusiastic work with clay, chamotte and other ceramic materials, porcelain is exactly the material in which the artist creates works that show the manifestation of femininity and power of ceramic art. Learn more at www.porcelanamuzejs.riga.lv 

 

October 09-15, Riga Restaurant Week, various restaurants in Riga

During this special week, Riga’s restaurants open their doors to all gourmands willing to treat themselves to an array of delicious tastes for an especially affordable price of 15–20 Euros for a three-course meal. For the entire week, all the city’s residents and guests have the chance to enjoy the season’s best foods prepared by experienced and innovative chefs, who give each meal a modern and sophisticated twist.

 

October 12, 

Orchestra Riga’s Season Opening Concert, Latvian Railway History Museum, Riga

Orchestra RIGA will open the new concert season featuring music from three contemporary American composers – Steven Bryant, Frank Ticheli and John Mackey – all of which have gained recognition around the world, but have yet to be performed in Latvia. This is also an unprecedented opportunity to hear one of the most prominent contemporary clarinet players – HМkan Rosengren – for the first time in Latvia. The U.S. based Swedish clarinetist, who as a soloist and chamber musician, performs all over the world, gives master classes and is a professor at California Fullerton University's music school. He will be performing a clarinet concert with music from Frank Ticheli. To buy tickets please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

 

October 19, The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra Concert A Cello’s Algorhythm, Great Guild, Riga

The concert is dedicated to the jubilee of Eleonora Testeleca – a fiery cellist and phenomenal pedagogue. The program includes the professor’s beloved Schelomo by Bloch, with LNSO’s principal cellist Diana Ozolina playing the solo part. The program also features Janis Ivanovs' poignant, moving concerto with Eriks Krisfelds, and a concerto by igneous Bulgarian composer Tabakova with Kristine Blaumane. Rumour has it, there will also be a piece for a cello choir, written specifically for the concert. To buy tickets please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv 

 

October 26, Contemporary Dance Performance Auction, Art Museum Riga Bourse, Riga

Auction is a contemporary dance and theatrical thinking connecting a discourse with contemporary fine arts and painting. The performance focuses on a physical action which can be interpreted as a dance and a theatrical act. The further and final aim is to realize a fine art product which defines the stage act as a fine art gesture series. Gergye Krisztián’s work is marked by a fine art approach and his art of dance can be discovered in his picture created at the end of the process. The resulting picture is offered “for sale”. In case the picture is not sold, it is destroyed on the spot. Hungarian dancer, choreographer-director Gergye KrisztiЗn (1976) seeks the purest and most straightforward way of formulation in the case of all topics and ideas, the genre which is the closest to the idea and the form which is the most unambiguous symbol of the idea.

 

October 27, Latvian Radio Choir Concert Day and Night, St. Peter’s Church, Riga

If you are an early bird, you will experience peace in the evening and silence at night. If you are an experienced owl, you will hear the magic of sunrise sounds and the eagerness of the dawn. Night, morning, day and evening include the miraculous appearance and disappearance of the Sun, and that is the dramatic content of the new program produced by the artistic director of the Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Klava, “Around-the-Clock or 1440.” The around-the-clock colors involve new opuses that offer views of modern Latvians.  The compositions for the Latvian Radio choir – harp, percussion and electronics, are by recipients of the Latvian Great Music Award, Maija Einfelde and Santa Ratniece, as well as by Aleksejs Pegusevs, a graduate from the composition class taught by Juris Karlsons, a fan of chamber and vocal music, and the recipient of numerous awards.  The program will feature a diverse amount of skills and different styles, involving improvisations by the virtuoso percussionist Ivo Kruskops and music by Juris Karlsons, Anete Asmane, Andrejs Selickis and Eriks Esenvalds. To buy tickets please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

 

LITHUANIA 

 

September 28 – October 13, International Vilnius Theatre Festival Sirenos 2017, various venues in Vilnius

The 14th festival Sirenos invites you to remove any preconceptions and to allow yourself to accept histories introduced from an unexpected point of view about those whom we always think of – about us. Producer and creator companies from Latvia, Russia, Italy, Hungary, Germany, France, and Switzerland will present six performances to Lithuanian spectators that will invite them to have a look at life and death without prior knowledge. Sirenos invites you to forget what theatre is, and to celebrate an opportunity to see the theatre in a different way. In every way possible – in hyper-realistic scenery and total chaos, together with those who do not fit into gender stereotypes and after those who are no longer among us, by observing the performance and walking across rooms that have become a performance. Full information on the festival is available at www.sirenos.lt and for ticket purchase please visit www.tiketa.lt

 

October 01-06, Electronic Music Festival Ahead 2017, various venues in Vilnius

The International Electronic Music Festival Ahead held by the Lithuanian Composers Union is dedicated to electronic music practices, and is calling for the fifth time to discover international electronic music projects, participate in workshops, and discuss together the phenomena related to sound and electronics. This year’s edition of Ahead will present the newest projects, among which are the artists returning to the festival with their new works. Additional information on the festival can be found at www.aheadfestival.lt 

 

October 12-15, International Festival Vilnius Jazz, various venues in Vilnius

Vilnius Jazz is an exceptional event in Lithuania, providing a broad perspective on contemporary trends in jazz from all over the world. Over the years Vilnius Jazz has earned a reputation as a radical avant-garde festival oriented towards novelty and limit-stretching creativity. The stylistic boundaries of jazz and free improvised music are often crossed and expanded here by offering joint projects with musicians from the academic, ethnic, rock and industrial music backgrounds. Vilnius Jazz is renowned for its creative and ambitious programs featuring some of the biggest names on the international jazz scene, alongside the best of Lithuanian talents. For full information on the festival please visit www.vilniusjazz.lt 

 

October 20-29, Contemporary Music Festival Gaida, various venues in Vilnius

Gaida is the most prominent festival of modern music in Lithuania and in all the Baltic countries, and one of the most important music forums in Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting and presenting a broad sweep of the latest creative processes and newest musical tendencies in Europe and the world. Gaida is open to music and innovative art of all different traditions and all geographical sources. The festival introduces the Vilnius audience to the finest achievements of contemporary world music, the most famous musicians are invited to the festival and the most impressive works are performed. Gaida presents creations from many different genres, from symphonic orchestra concerts to electronic music, innovative multimedia projects, music theatre, sound installations and club events. The events of Gaida are always associated with new ideas of modern times, highest quality and innovations, and they take place in the main concert halls of Vilnius: the National Philharmonic, National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Congress Concert Hall, National Drama Theatre, Arts Printing House, Contemporary Art Centre, etc. For more please go to www.vilniusfestivals.lt/EN/gaida-festival/ 

 

October 12 – November 05, Film Festival Inconvenient Films, Vilnius cinema theatres

Inconvenient Films is an international competitive human rights documentary film festival taking place in various cities and towns across Lithuania. Established in 2007 as an annual film event, it is currently the biggest documentary film festival in the country and the only film festival of this kind in the Baltic States region. The festival invites filmmakers, experts, activists and the festival audience to appreciate and discuss the role of documentaries in reflecting and shaping our understanding of reality. The mission of this festival is to use award winning author driven films in raising awareness about human rights issues around the world, encouraging public debate on ways to address them. The Festival’s International Competition is dedicated to the films by new filmmakers – their first or second feature documentary. Films are selected considering artistic value, filmmaking skills and revelation of a relevant human rights topic. The Best Film is selected and awarded by an international jury. All films screened during the Inconvenient Films festival are eligible to win the Audience Choice award. The winner of the award is chosen directly by spectators. For more information please visit 

www.nepatoguskinas.lt