Latvian Radio Choir
Latvian Radio Choir
The LATVIAN RADIO CHOIR is a unique, award-winning ensemble of professional singers that offers its audiences an extraordinary variety of repertoire ranging from early music to the most sophisticated scores of contemporary compositions. The choir has recorded the Grammy Award-winning album Adam’s Lament (ECM) composed by Arvo Pärt and conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste. It is a repeat winner of the Great Music Award of Latvia (the highest national award for professional achievement in music) and has received the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers Award. The choir’s recording of Sergei Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil was praised by Gramophone as the best recording of February 2013 and ranked among the 25 best albums of the year by the American radio station NPR.
The Latvian Radio Choir has performed at many of the world’s most renowned concert halls: Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw (the Netherlands), Elbphilharmonie (Germany), Duke University Chapel (USA), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Cité de la Musique-Philharmonie de Paris (France), Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Walt Disney Concert Hall (USA), Konzerthaus Berlin (Germany), the Library of Congress (USA), Queen Elizabeth Hall (UK) and the Dresden Frauenkirche (Germany).
In 2019, the Latvian Radio choir toured Japan and China – two special programmes were performed in Shanghai in October, and in November, the choir’s opera NEOARCTIC was premiered in Hong Kong.
SIGVARDS KĻAVA has been the artistic director of the Latvian Radio Choir (LRC) since 1992. As a result of his steady efforts, the LRC has become an internationally recognized, vocally distinctive musical group welcome at the top music festivals and invited to collaborate with the most outstanding composers and conductors. Sigvards Kļava studied conducting at the JVLAM, the Bachakademie Stuttgart, the St. Petersburg Conservatory and masterclasses at the Oregon Bach Festival. He has been a professor in the conducting department ar JVLMA since 2000.
Sigvards Kļava has received the Latvian Great Music Award several times. He is also a recipient of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers Award and the Order of the Three Stars. He has been a principal conductor of the Latvian Song Festival since 1990. Sigvards Kļava is a professor in the Choral Conducting Faculty at the JVLAM. He has also taken part in numerous contests as a member of the jury. Kļava has conducted concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Elbphilharmonie, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic and elsewhere. He takes part in international juries and educational projects. As a guest conductor, Kļava has performed with the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Netherlands Opera Choir, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Cappella Amsterdam, the Berlin RIAS Chamber Choir, the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir and many others.
