It is for the 28th time that Liepāja International Stars Festival will present to the audience unforgettable moments of classical, jazz, modern and vocal music in interpretation of outstanding musicians. In five concerts given in the Great Hall of “GREAT AMBER” and in the Jurgelaitis Chamber Hall, it will feature renowned conductors Gintaras Rinkevicius, Andris Veismanis, and Atvars Lakstīgala, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and Latvian Radio Big Band, singers Maija Kovaļevska and Maria Mendes, virtuosos Michael Pipoquinha un Karel Dohnal, pianists Armands Ābols and Wilhem Latchoumia, a premiere of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Concerto for Saxophone with Oskars Petrauskis as soloist, the Riga Chamber Choir AVE SOL male group, and Orests Silabriedis.

The festival opening concert will present two symphonic capriccios. Naval officer Rimsky-Korsakov’s music offers a wide range of Spanish rhythms, in turn his countryman Tchaikovsky revives his lost joviality in the sunny Rome, and his lively Capriccio reflects Italian folk songs.

Besides these masterpieces of the 19th century, the audience will hear Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major conveying the sparkling vitality of the 20th century post-war Europe. It will be a pleasure to listen to this opus of bright and wild joy performed by a soloist born in France - Wilhelm Lachoumia. The French press write that fairies have put a spell on Lachoumia. The pianist makes the most complicated contemporary music sound captivating like a crime story, his connection with audience is magic.

The concert will close with a world’s premiere – Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra “Arctic Visions: Sea”. The composer is renowned as a Latvian master of meditation and a virtuoso landscapist who is very familiar with the northern nature. His “Liepāja Concerto” was devoted to the magic of Arctic night. In his latest composition, Ešenvalds is depicting the harsh wilderness of the northern sea with an inimitably beautiful sound of Oskars Petrauskis’ saxophone trailing like a shining pattern in the sky above.