Media information, 10 December 2025, Riga
Bidding farewell to the old year and ringing in the New Year, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) always invites listeners to special New Year concerts to conjure up a magical festive mood. At four New Year concerts – on 29 December at 18:00 at the Cesis Concert Hall, and on 30 December, 2 January and 3 January at 19:00 at the Riga Congress Hall – the orchestra will be joined in creating the festive atmosphere by American opera diva Julia Bullock and the Riga Dom Choir School’s Gospel Choir, under the musical direction of German conductor Christian Reif. The New Year concert programme will honour the diversity of American musical culture, starting with works by classic composers Margaret Bonds, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, and continuing with music by contemporary composers Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery, who bring African American cultural heritage to the fore. Meanwhile, composer Edgars Cirulis has specially arranged some of gospel music’s most vivid pages for the New Year concerts.
The LNSO concert programme will be enriched by American composer Carlos Simon’s striking opus “Four Black American Dances” (2023). This is a work for symphony orchestra originally commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, whose premiere was conducted by Andris Nelsons. This composition is an emotionally and musically diverse journey through African American culture, in which dance plays a central, community-uniting and identity-shaping role. Working through four different dance types – “Ring Shout,” “Waltz,” “Tap” and “Holy Dance” – the composer’s work is at once a tribute to Black American cultural heritage and a living, contemporary statement about identity and art’s capacity to speak about a complex history through movement and sound. Grammy Award nominee Carlos Simon is a composer born in Atlanta. He is currently artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In his compositions he combines influences of jazz, gospel and neo-romanticism.
The programme will also feature a cycle by violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery, created in collaboration with Julia Bullock, “Five Freedom Songs.” It is based on material from the 1867 collection “Slave Songs of the United States” and honours African American musical heritage. Combining tradition with new stylistic currents, Montgomery and Bullock create a profound statement about freedom, identity and the persistence of a historical voice that continues to resonate today.
The concert will also feature Leonard Bernstein’s music for the film “On the Waterfront,” created in 1954, which became one of the composer’s most recognisable scores and received wide acclaim from critics and audiences alike at a time when the film won eight Academy Awards.
The programme will be complemented by songs by George Gershwin and Margaret Bonds, affirming the creative scope of two significant 20th-century American authors. Gershwin, regarded as a classic of American concert music, brought a new, urban sound into concert music. Meanwhile composer and pianist Margaret Bonds, one of the first widely recognised African American composers, created richly emotional works that often echo spiritual heritage, social justice and African American cultural identity.
Arrangements of gospel music pages by Brian Blade, Kirk Franklin and Richard Smallwood, created especially for the LNSO New Year concerts, are the work of Latvian composer and pianist Edgars Cirulis.
Soloist, the owner of an outstanding voice, Julia Bullock is a striking contemporary opera singer, a Grammy Award laureate whose voice and stage presence have been highly praised by critics and audiences worldwide. She has performed at such prestigious concert halls and opera houses as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and the Liceu opera house in Barcelona. The singer’s repertoire spans baroque music as well as works by Romantic and contemporary composers, several of which were created specifically for her voice. Bullock’s creative work also stands out for its deep social engagement. In her multidisciplinary projects, the artist combines music, poetry and visual art to address themes of historical injustice, freedom and human dignity. Her solo album Walking in the Dark, created together with conductor Christian Reif, won a Grammy Award in 2024 for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album. The singer has also received a number of other significant awards for her contribution to contemporary vocal art.
The Riga Dom Choir School’s Gospel Choir was founded in 2018 under the direction of Una Stade. The choir has collaborated with Janis Sipkevics, Marta Grigale, Roberts Memmens, the band “Trianas parks” and other representatives of Latvian popular music, including in its repertoire not only gospel music but also local and foreign popular music. The Gospel Choir is a laureate of the Riga Sings 2022 competition, and also won 1st place and the Grand Prix at the Lauluragin competition in Estonia in 2019 and 2023.
At the conductor’s podium will be the chief conductor of the Gavle Symphony Orchestra, Grammy Award-winning artist Christian Reif, who has earned a brilliant reputation for his natural musicality, innovative approach and technical mastery. The highlights of Reif’s 2024/2025 season include his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Hollywood, and collaborations with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Northern Sinfonia.
The concert will be hosted by Latvian Public Media journalist, culture and music professional Anete Asmane-Vilsone.
For the latest LNSO news, follow the LNSO website at www.lnso.lv, as well as the orchestra’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LNSO.lv.