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Urbi et Orbi CD

Such stars as Gidon Kremer, Inessa Galant, and other music celebrities meet together in one constellation, in one booklet – at your home!

The cycle of concerts To the City and the World was conceived to celebrate the Riga's 800th anniversary. Since 1998 concerts of the cycle with attendance of thousands of listeners have been given in Riga and other Latvian cities.

In 2001, August the 18th and 19th the gala concert To the City and the World took place in the Latvian National Opera. This concert turned into a particular event of cultural and political significance. The Riga born world-known musicians came to the native town, where they obtained musical education and from where they went their roads of art and glory. Among them were Inessa Galant, Gidon Kremer, Inga Kalna, Egils Silins, Elina Garanca, Marcis Kulis, Ilze Urbane, Aleksandrs Vilumanis, Valentina Brovak, Vadim Gluzman un Angela Joffe, Ilmars Lapins, Eva Bindere, Ingus Petersons, chamber orchestra KREMERata BALTICA, Sana Villerusa, Kristine Blaumane…

A richly illustrated booklet in four languages (Latvian, Russian, English, German) was issued especially for this gala concert.

In this booklet the reader can find the biographies of the musicians as well, as their photos from private archives and the original autographs in the form of a sincere congratulation to the city of their childhood and youth. The booklet is supplemented with the rare records from the found of the Latvian Radio, which are collected on a compact disc.

This booklet isn't just an excellently printed issue for a special occasion, but that is a beautiful moment, where readers may be dwelling on. That is a page of the Riga's cultural history, the incomparable melody of this old city, its musical memory. The booklet is a wonderful present both for a highly refined musical art expert and for a simple lover of music. It would be interesting for any admirer of the art of these remarkable musicians, who have hold Riga in their memories as a unique town all over the world.


Riga – it is the place where everything occurred for the first time and therefore it was charming. It was the time of careless childhood, youth and the first step on the stage. The parents were alive, and all your friends were next to you. It was the time of first love and friendships; people were not so deeply concerned about money. When you have been so carefree and happy what can your soul cherish afterwards? A ray of sun… With passing years all the worries, concerns and problems have been forgotten and it is only a sparkling feeling left with you.

The memories make one smile and they are a sourse of a light smarting sadness because all that will never repeat again, because Riga of today is different; only echoes, fragments and pieces are there…

Brightly painted facades leave me indifferent, but my heart beats faster on seeing an old beloved toy… I'm touched by simple, modest, inconspicuous things, they rouse aching parallels.

Any city has its ups and downs in its history. I would like Riga to take an adequate place in the world, as the city is worth it – and I do not have only music in mind. Riga is inhabited by a sufficient number of people to inspire a whole city.

Inessa Galant


Your native city where you were born and grew up is a kind of key to yourself. Its geographic layout, its waters, parks, streets and churches – it is your inner geography as well.

Wherever the roads of artist's search would take him or her, the starting point is always the first workshop, the first stage, the first hall.

Whatever you will become, you will always be accompanied by invisible shadows of the people, who moulded you – your parents, your teachers, your colleagues and audience.

And when I am on the stage, I know that my background has been formed by the spires of Riga, Br๎v๎bas street, straight as an arrow, the old Dom Cathedral, the wise river Daugava, the peppermint-green Wagner hall, the Opera stalls of the colour of red wine and those wonderful people I have had a chance to meet with due to the kindness of fate and who have made me understand that life is beautiful.

Inga Kalna


I have always been looking for a house, a port, a station or a hearth to call home. I was about fifty years old when I understood that my native country is the one where I was born. It makes logical sense and this is what pulled me towards the Baltic and Latvia. There is no political or ideological aspect to it, but simply that this is the land where I belong. I feel at home here in my KREMERata Baltica to a far greater extent than anywhere else on the planet.

Gidon Kremer


Riga is the place I am affiliated to. It is my soil that nourishes me, and the place from which I have been striving to reach the Sun. But, the further I have stepped back, the more I am longing to fondle it and the closer it has become – like a family home to a traveler.

Marcis Kulis





The booklet To the City and the World is available at all concerts of the Hermanis Braun Foundation and at the Foundation's office (Riga, Jekaba street, 3), or can be booked.

Booking phone number: + 371 7205444
Fax : + 371 7205447
Mobile phone: + 371 6015035
E-mail: hbf@hbf.lv

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