Latvian Festival Orchestra

The Latvian Festival Orchestra (LFO) is a new organization that comprises a select group of musicians from various Latvian symphony and chamber orchestras.

LFO’s first performance took place in late 2015, together with soprano Marina Rebeka and Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci as part of the concert series for the inauguration of Great Amber, a new concert hall in the Latvian city of Liepāja. In 2017, LFO and American conductor John Fiore toured in Latvia performing the concert version of Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in the country’s largest concert halls, with Rebeka in the title role. In the summer of that same year, they played Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier with Karel Mark Chichon on the podium. The concert was honoured with the 2017 Liepāja Culture Award as well as the 2017 Kilogram of Culture award presented by Latvian public television and radio for the most significant musical performance of the year.

In 2017 and 2018, LFO performed at the Dzintari Concert Hall with Elīna Garanča and other outstanding musicians; these concerts were also conducted by Chichon, now an important partner of the Latvian Festival Orchestra. In 2018, LFO performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and at the “Šalc” classical music festival in Liepāja, Ventspils, and Cēsis along with Rebeka and the young Latvian conductor Guntis Kuzma.