Playing it cool

Rihards Kolmanis and his band, Coolmans Report, have a lot to be happy about in 2015. The band, which comprises of Kolmanis on guitar, Sintija Grigorjeva on bass-guitar and vocals,  drummer Peteris Zile, and keyboard player Elvis Litins, have, with the exception of the latter, all received scholarships to study at the Berklee College of Music in the United States. Lintins, didn’t apply for Berklee, as he still has one year remaining of high school studies.  

It is a rare occasion that three musicians from the same country, other than the USA, have been accepted into Berklee at the same time.

The Coolmans Report auditioned together as a band. The school’s yearly tuition is 38,940 US dollars per year.

‘’People ask me if I’m excited. Just look at the list of some of the distinguished musicians which Berklee has trained,’’ says Kolmanis.  

Some of the noted names include Al Di Meola, Quincy Jones, Diana Krall, Joey Kramer of Aerosmith, John Mayer, Howard Shore who received an Oscar for soundtrack for the movie Lord of the Rings, Steve Vai, Vinnie Colaiuta aka Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck Band, Joe Zawinul from the Miles Davis Band and Weather Report and many other illustrious musicians.

Furthermore, 229 Grammy Awards have collectively been awarded to 99 Berklee alumni. And in 1971 Berklee awarded its first honorary doctorate on Duke Ellington.

Kolmanis commenced playing the guitar when he was 15. His mother is a noted Latvian film director, Inara Kolmane, who has directed a number of internationally well known films like the documentary on Andrei Sakharov called “My Husband Andrei Sakharov”, the  feature film “Mona” and her latest work “Ruch and Norie”.

The latest film is based on a moving story about unconventional and intimate friendship which develops between two individuals, a young Japanese anthropology student from Kyoto, and an 81 year old Latvian woman from the ethnographic Suiti community in Latvia, which is part the UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Allen Bush, the Director of Media Relations at the Berklee College of Music informed The Baltic Times, from Boston, of the  past and present enrollment figures relating to Baltic students
studying at Berklee. From Estonia six students have been enrolled historically, all six received scholarships, none have as yet graduated; from Lithuania no students have enrolled or will be entering this year. From Latvia, four students have enrolled historically, two on scholarships, all four graduated.  

Kolmanis was  accepted in the guitar and vocal department, and received a scholarship of 20 000 US dollars. Grigorjeva was accepted in the bass-guitar and vocal department. She is the first musician from Latvia to receive a full scholarship. Zile was accepted in the drum and percussion department, and will  receive a scholarship of 16 000 US dollars.

It was a busy summer for the Coolmans Report. They headlined at one of the biggest festivals in Lithuania “Bliuzo Naktys” together with Justina Lee Brown, described as ‘’one of the most promising female vocalists in the music industry’’ said Kolmanis. They performed  at  the “Positivus” festival, the  annual, three-day summer music and culture festival held in Salacgriva, Latvia, together with American blues and soul singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader  from New Orleans,  Eugene Hideaway Bridges. And at the opening ceremony of the Latvian Youth Song and Dance festival, which drew  over 37,000 young dancers and choir singers from all over Latvia.

Kolmanis is most grateful to the band's mentor,  and current manager Dailes Zigis; as well as to one of the best bands he has heard and had the chance to learn from – Latvian Blues Band; also to the bands school the  Riga Cathedral Choir School, and their teachers  – the head of the jazz department Talis Gzibovskis and Indriķis Veitners who helped the band prepare for their final exam, and of course our parents. ‘’Without all of them we would not know what we know now, and maybe would not even have played music,’’ said Kolmanis.