First launched in 2021, this August the music festival “Rimbenieks”, organized by the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, once again tours through South Kurzeme, offering several refined musical experiences.
As part of the European Capital of Culture “Liepāja 2027” programme, the festival highlights cultural accessibility beyond major centres, opening the season of musical activities across the region.
The artists of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, together with their friends and associates, will travel around the South Kurzeme Municipality to fill cultural centers, churches, ancient manor buildings and other places with the sounds of music in different concerts taking place from August 1 to August 17. This time, the concerts will be held in Kazdanga, Gramzda, Aizpute, Dunalka, Rucava, Jūrmalciems, Durbe, Pāvilosta and Grobiņa.
This year, the Rimbenieks festival will once again open at the Kazdanga Cultural Centre.
On August 1 at 19:00 under the baton of conductor Guntis Kuzma, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra invites listeners on a musical journey—from Grieg’s playful Baroque stylisation to Mendelssohn’s Scottish landscapes. The true highlight of the evening, however, will be Heinrich Hübler’s rarely performed Concert Piece for Four Horns and Orchestra.
On August 7 at 19:00 at Gramzda Evangelical Lutheran Church, a musical conversation, where classic meets contemporary and tenderness meets power will be offered by the Berči Quartet together with percussionist Marta Kauliņa-Pelnēna. The programme will feature not only the “Blooming jasmine” by Georgs Pelēcis, but also one of the most frequently performed chamber music works: Antonín Dvořák’s “American Quartet” and also a number of works by contemporary composers.
On August 8 at 19:00, the Liepāja String Quartet will perform at Aizpute Baptist Church. It will be a concert where music speaks an ancient language, but with a lively and modern touch to it. The programme features Johann Michael Haydn’s Divertimento, radiating the clarity and lightness of Classicism; two movements from Mendelssohn’s Four Pieces for String Quartet, where Romanticism is still young, inquisitive, and full of lyrical longing; and Joachim Raff’s String Quartet In the Ancient Style—a musical kaleidoscope where Baroque and Romanticism meet like two travellers crossing the same bridge.
On August 9 at 18:00 at Dunalka Cultural Center flautist Egija Sproģe, French horn player Ingus Novicāns, and pianist Edgars Tomševics will lead the listeners through landscapes where classical and contemporary music merge into a single current. From French impressionism to modern rhythms, from breathless solos to intimate dialogue. The concert programme is very extensive – from the “Boat in the Ocean” by Maurice Ravel to “Dance” by Eric Ewazen.
On August 10 at 17:00 at the Rucava Evangelical Lutheran Church two string sextets from different eras will be performed, they bouth meet in one place: the moment when a person is left alone with their truth. String Sextet No 2 by Johannes Brahms is a warm and contemplative message of romanticism, while Arnold Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night” is more dramatic, expressive, but fragile and shocking at the same time. The violinists Karolīna Aurēlija Valarovska and Undīne Cercina, viola players Annija Elizabete Meija and Ance Lipste, and cellists Klāvs Jankevics and Leons Veldre will perform at the concert.
On August 13 at 19:00 drums, bells and cymbals will fill the premises of Jūrmalciems Nets House. Three musicians of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra – Māris Zīlmanis, Marta Kauliņa-Pelnēna and Reinis Tomiņš will let the percussion instruments sing, because percussion instruments are not just the guardians of rhythm. Their world is far broader – it can be harsh and gentle, precise and chaotic, playful and meditative, even melodic.
On August 14 at 19:00 at Durbe Evangelical Lutheran Church, clarinetist Alise Gavare, violinist Gunārs Mūrnieks, cellist Klāvs Jankevics and pianist Ieva Sarja will perform one of the most powerful works in sacred music of the 20th century – Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time”. But this night will be even more special thanks to the premiere of Rihards Dubra’s new work “Les passiones d’ete”.
On August 15 at 19:00 at the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit in Pāvilosta, the string quartet JUNO will be featured as a guest at the South Kurzeme “Rimbenieks” Festival, whose intimate and courageous music this time will encounter the timbre richness of woodwind instruments played by oboist Renāte Trapāne and bassoonist Pauls Gendrikovs. The programme will feature very sensual music by Maurice Ravel and some less well-known composers.
On August 17 at 17:00, the grand final concert of the South Kurzeme “Rimbenieks” Festival will be taking place at the ruins of the Livonian Order castle in Grobiņa. Among the ruins, sky and music the audience will be able to enjoy one of the most monumental compositions in the history of Western music, where music becomes light arising from chaos. Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “The Creation” will be performed by the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the choir “Kamēr…” and soloists Jolanta Strikaite, Mārtiņš Zvīgulis and Rihards Mačanovskis under the direction of the conductor Jurģis Cābulis. “The Creation” has been performed very rarely in Latvia, and in this concert its English version will be performed in Latvia for the second time only.
Entrance to all “Rimbenieks” Festival concerts is free of charge.
The South Kurzeme “Rimbenieks” Festival is organized as part of the “Liepāja 2027” programme with the funding allocated by the Ministry of Culture, Liepāja State City, South Kurzeme Municipality and Kuldīga Municipality. The Festival is supported by LSEZ Terrabalt SIA (LLC).
A garden party in the courtyard of the Liepāja Restoration Centre on the weekend of 26 July brought to a close an ambitious series of talks and masterclasses titled “From Know-How to Do-How”, dedicated to cultural heritage preservation and sustainable living.
On October 4 at 20:00, audiences are invited to an unforgettable concert, “Rock and Organ for Liepāja”, at Liepāja’s Lutheran Church. Due to high demand, an additional concert has been announced for October 3.