This year we celebrate our 17th anniversary! Over the years Summertime – invites Inessa Galante has become a place to be and meet in August, a place that welcomes recognized and beloved artists, as well as sets the stage for a new generation of talents. We stay true to our core values as young talents will participate in all shows.
The festival will take place August 10 – 13 at Dzintari Concert Hall, and every day will be like a unique story with a variety of experiences and emotions to enjoy – virtuoso pianists from Latvia, the exhilarating Balkan rhythms, soul and blues, as well jazz and classical music.
In 2023, we are continuing our series of concerts Brilliant Women in Art and Music. The muse and patroness of the festival is honoured to bring you exceptional music from Broadway and other stage shows. The gala concert will be dedicated to the legendary actress and singer Marlene Dietrich, embodied on the stage by the German-born star Ute Lemper who currently lives in New York and performs on Broadway.
In the internationally and critically acclaimed musical Rendezvous with Marlene, Ute Lemper will share the story of a three-hour phone conversation she had with an ailing Marlene Dietrich. This is a very personal and intimate, yet engaging and thrilling performance. The show, which has also been staged on Broadway, has received fantastic reviews, with critics saying that the two hours flew by as they were mesmerized by this amazing story.
This year’s Summertime – invites Inessa Galante is like a wave as we are building up the dynamics from piano to forte. And we invite you to be part of this spectacular show every day!
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10.08.2023. @8PM Opening night – A Night of Piano Virtuosos
The opening of the festival will see performances by four multiple award-winning Latvian piano virtuosos who are loved by critics – Andrejs Osokins, Reinis Zarins, Daumants Liepins, and Aurelija Simkus. This is an entirely unique event as it is one of those rare occasions when listeners can enjoy them performing on the same stage.
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Andrejs Osokins is immensely popular with audiences worldwide thanks to his hypnotic personal appeal, a vast and expressive palette of sound colours, as well as an unusually compelling sense of different styles of music, according to music critics. Since the age of five when he began playing piano Andrejs has won awards at the world’s most prestigious piano competitions including Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv and Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. From lullabies to well-known classics and American greats, Andrejs displays mastery and virtuosity in all of his recitals. Every time he performs he takes his audience on an emotional journey through piano music.
Reinis Zarins. Ever since his concerto debut at the age of ten, Reinis has performed as a concerto soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and North America. He is one of Latvia’s most prominent talents. Truth and beauty are the qualities he seeks in the music he chooses, the interpretations he sculpts, and the collaborations he enters. Equally at home in classical and contemporary repertoire his passion lies in the crafting of conceptual programmes that encourage interaction between music, philosophy, history, and theology. A favourite of audiences around the world, Reinis Zarins loves collaborations with young and vibrant artists for new musical discoveries.
Daumants Liepins is one of the most exciting new talents of his generation. In 2019, he was awarded the Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and first prize at Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona. After his first solo album was released in 2022 topping Pianist Magazine’s list of Pianists to Look Out For in 2020. Critics describe him as a sensitive, imaginative pianist in full command of his instrument’s resources effortlessly keeping the listener transfixed.
Aurelija Simkus gave her first solo concert at the age of eleven at the Kaunas International Chamber Music Festival. She rose to international prominence at the age of 16 when her first solo album Scherzo was released. The prestigious Piano News named it Album of the Month and gave it an enthusiastic review calling Aurelija an astonishing pianist and a real discovery. Newspaper critic Westfalische Rundschau admired the soulfulness of her performance filled with extraordinary musicality and sensuality. She is also a winner of the Echo Klassik award in the Best Young Artist category.
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11.08.2023. @8PM – Music Hooligan
Our dear audiences’ pleas have been answered and he is back! A musical hooligan, a true cosmopolitan, and an artist with Ukrainian and Greek roots, Stefan Hantel, better known by his stage name Shantel is returning to Dzintari Concert Hall. In his music, you can hear the influence of the Balkans, funk, reggae, and even rock. No one sits at Shantel concerts because everyone is dancing! The extravagant author of the Disko Partizani hit, a resident of Bucovina Club has an ace up his sleeve. This year he will perform in the company of a Latvian artist. Who will it be? You will find out when you come to the concert!
Shantel brings to listeners musical treasures of Southeast Europe, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean in a new context making it possible to intuitively experience the cultures they come from. He has his own method of cultural sampling: taking things out of their context and putting them into a new one.
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12.08.2023. @6PM – Viva l’amore
An evening with Inessa Galante, which has become a festival tradition, features performances of favourite Latvian and foreign stars at Dzintari Concert Hall. This time spectators are in for a lot of surprises! Along with well-known stars, many young, bright and promising talents will take part in the concert. Accompanying the performers this evening will be the brilliant Austrian pianist Greta Erharter-Sargsyan, who is returning to the festival.
The programme of the concert includes popular classics that will be performed and interpreted by famous soloists as well as up-and-coming talents who have already become the hallmark of the Inessa Galante Foundation as many of them after participating in the Inessa Galante Talents competition became popular not only in their native Latvia but also beyond.
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12.08.2023. @8PM – Viva l’Italia!
Raphael Gualazzi is one of Italy’s most accomplished jazz blues musicians. The unique combination of the euphonious Italian language, the charisma of the artist, and melodic jazz rhythms will take the listeners to the sun-drenched Ligurian Riviera with a glass of cool prosecco in their hands. The artist is also known for re-introducing Italy to the Eurovision Song Contest. His authentic sound is the result of his studies at the Conservatorio Rossini in Pesaro. Note his subsequent research of ragtime blues and New Orleans jazz and his love of more contemporary acts like Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, and Ben Harper.
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Rafael is one of those rare artists. A permanent participant and guest star of the most popular music festivals in Italy, a favourite of the Mediterranean public, and a bearer of Italian traditions. He participated in the 2011 Sanremo Music Festival (the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on the national level), where he won the Giovani (New Generation) award and was chosen by a six-member jury to represent his country at Eurovision with his self-penned bilingual song, Follia d’Amore. The track, Italy’s first entry since 1997, finished second behind Azerbaijan with an impressive 189 points and became the breakout single for his sophomore effort.
13.08.2023. @6PM Young & Brilliant
This year festival organizers have decided to dedicate an entire concert to the winners of the Inessa Galante Talents competition. Listeners are more than welcome to come and see young & brilliant up-and-coming stars from Latvia. It is a prestigious opportunity for the talent competition winners to perform their solo acts on the big stage with amazing acoustics. The young performers will surprise and captivate the audience with their talent and mastery, making everyone proud of the artistic potential of the country. The concert a novelty will have its premiere at the festival organized for the best young talents to give them a sense of what it is like to perform on the big stage as a musician.
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The main goals of the Inessa Galante Talents competition are to discover young talented performing artists and to activate the interest of children and young people in music and culture. The competition is famous for the fact that Inessa Galante is always looking for and finding bright personalities and talents that fill the stage with their presence. More than 70,000 votes are cast on the Internet platform every year for the public’s favorite performers. Up to 300 young talents participate in four categories at the competition each year. This facilitates the development of local musical talents and gives them the opportunity to gain recognition not only in Latvia but also abroad.
13.08.2023. @8PM Gala concert – Rendezvous with Marlene
From the beginning of her career, Ms. Lemper has been compared to Marlene Dietrich; German heritage, blonde hair, high cheekbones, and definitive performing styles. It cannot be denied that there is a spiritual kinship between the two women. As it happens, comparisons from early on in Lemper’s career led her to pen a note to Dietrich, apologizing for the media attention to their similarities. Her postcard led the legend to phone the up-and-comer and three hours later Ute Lemper had an amazing story to tell.
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Ute Lemper’s career is vast and varied. She has made her mark on stage, in films, in concert, and as a unique recording artist. She has been universally praised for her interpretations of Berlin Cabaret Songs, the works of Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht, and the Chansons of Marlene Dietrich. Her repertoire includes works by Edith Piaf, Léo Ferré, Jacques Prevert, Astor Piazzolla, and many others as well as her own compositions. She is also acclaimed for her portrayals in musicals and Broadway plays in Paris, Berlin, and London’s West End.
