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| Music is Life | |
 Across continents and cultures; music is a fundamental tool for intercultural dialog. Music is not limited through language barriers, thereby making it an easy and accessible tool for cooperation, learning, co-creation and communication. The diverse universe of music appeals to a broad audience and this makes working with music an inclusive and popular discipline. For these reasons, music is a central part of The Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania’s work.
Carl Nielsen - a 150 years birthday celebration
2015 is not only a year that marks 25 years of the Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 2015 is also the year that the Danish national composer Carl Nielsen would have turned 150 years. Carl Nielsen composed a number of symphonies, operas, folk songs, chamber music, and pieces for piano and flute. His life and music is celebrated in Denmark and abroad through a range of concerts, exhibitions, master classes, radio- and TV-transmissions. The celebration, also marked in the three Baltic States, creates opportunities for cooperation between Baltic and Danish musicians. In the winter of 2014 the celebration started with the musical cooperation between Danish violinist Christina Åstrand and the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, who performed Nielsen’s violin concert.
June 5th, Danish soloist Janne Thomsen, Lithuanian conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra gave a large concert in Vilnius with some of Nielsen’s greatest work. The concert was aired live on Lithuanian radio and television. Organized with The Danish Embassy.
In early March 2015, Duo Askou//Andersen preformed three concerts in Estonia and one in Latvia. The tour also included a master class with young Estonian music students. As part of the celebration of Carl Nielsen, the Institute is also organizing several organ concerts. Sven Verner Olsen played during the Pärnu organ festival and Jakob Lorentzen visits both Lithuania and Latvia in 2015 - there is much more to celebrate and engage Baltic audiences and Musicians in this.
Baltic Jazz
The Danish Cultural Institute has had a clear strategy to promote the jazz scene in the Baltic countries. Many of these events have included concerts with the Danish jazz pianists Nikolaj Bentzon. In 2011-2012, he visited Latvia as a conductor for both the Latvian Radio Big band and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. His concert with Signe Juul in 2012 aired all over Europe via the European Broadcasting Union. Bentzon’s visits to Latvia resulted in a continued cooperation with Latvian musicians and are a clear example of how the Institute facilitates Danish-Baltic cooperation.
DCI facilitated the cooperation in the Danish-Latvian duo Frank/Pashkevich that started in 2013.
The duo consists of the Danish guitarist Christian Frank and the Latvian saxophonist Deniss Pashkevich. The two musicians met by coincidence in Copenhagen in 2010 and have since united their different cultural background, toured and released 2 albums, one with their quartet by the same name. The duo is an example of how music can facilitate intercultural dialog. Pashkevich is uncompromising in his high technical skills, which he uses as a tool for his expression. Frank, on the other hand, is consciously offbeat and is relentless in expressing himself in a unique and rich way. The duo also appears with additional Latvian, Danish and American partners.
Latest, Cæcilie Norby and Lars Danielsson visited Estonia and Latvia twice and gave three concerts in spring. Malene Kjærgård and Tobias Dall also visited Latvia during Rigas Ritmi jazz festival in July 2015 and enjoyed playing with several Latvian bands during the festival.
The Baltic choral tradition
The three Baltic countries are rooted in a long and wonderful choral tradition with an extensive repertoire of folksongs. The three countries’ individual national identities are closely linked to singing and choir music. Danish Choirs coming to the three Baltic countries have enjoyed the rich musical atmosphere. In July, Brønshøj Girls Choir enjoyed their stay in Latvia during the School Youth Song and Dance Festival, the largest festival to involve Latvian school children held every five years. The choir from Denmark participated in the festival and gave concerts in various places in Latvia. Another Danish choir who has experienced the unique Latvian choir culture is Aarhus Chamber Choir who performed during the Nordic-Baltic Choral Festival 2015. Baltic choirs also enjoy their visits to Denmark, and DR Vokalensemblet has a strong cooperation with Latvian composer Uģis Prauliņš. Their Joint CD with recorder player Michala Petri was a huge success, receiving several prizes and has since been performed extensively by the Danish choir around Europe.
Photo: Christina Åstrand
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