Latvian National Opera soloist Jūlija Vasiļjeva and pianist Māris Skuja present the program "Garuta. Rachmaninoff" in the Beletage Hall. The concert will feature the solo songs of Lucija Garuta and the romances of Sergei Rachmaninov.
"Next year, we will commemorate Lúcia Garutas on her one hundred and twentieth anniversary, and in honor of this event, together with Māri Skuja, we are working on recording an album of her solo songs. In the first part of the concert, the solo songs of Lucija Garuta will be played - both the popular "Svētā mīlā", "Mēnes laiva" and "Tu again te!", as well as lesser known ones. Māris Skuja has studied polyphony with Lúcia Garutas, they had a cordial relationship. Part of the composer's creative heritage has been preserved in manuscript, and we have also included these songs in both the concert and the album. Lucija Garut studied in France, and her compositions show a strong influence of French music in harmonies, fragility and also depth. This program is a challenge for both singer and pianist. In order to diversify the program and give it a romantic accent, we included Sergei Rachmaninoff's romances in the second part of the concert," says Yuliya Vasilieva.
Jūlija Vasiļjeva has been a soloist of the Latvian National Opera since 2013, she sings the leading soprano roles, including Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata", Norīn Gaetāno in Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale", Margaret Charles Gounod's "Faust", Clorinda in Gioacchino Rossini's "Cinderella" ", Lelde Imanta Kalniņa "Playing, dancing" and others.
Since 1991, Māris Skuja has been the concertmaster of the second largest Austrian opera house - the Graz Opera House, from 2001 to 2017 - the main concertmaster, and from 2002 - also the head of the opera studio. He was a repetiteur at the Copenhagen Royal Opera, Cologne Opera, Trondheim and Giessen theaters, as well as the Estonian National Opera. From 1997, he regularly worked as a pianist and conductor's assistant in the creation of performances of the Bregenz Opera Festival. Māris Skuja graduated from the Jāzeps Vītolas Latvian Music Academy in the composition class of Ādolf Skulte and the piano class of Arvīd Žilinska. For 16 years, he was the chief concertmaster and assistant to conductor Rihards Glāzups at the Latvian National Opera (then the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of the LPSR).
Thanks to more than 45 years of activity in opera theaters, Māras Skujas' active repertoire includes more than 100 operas, a large number of oratorios, cantatas and operettas. His extensive knowledge of opera dramaturgy and the specifics of vocal art have been appreciated by singers both in Latvia and abroad. Currently, Māris Skuja also promotes the vocal growth of many soloists of the Latvian National Opera. In addition to his duties in theaters, immediately after finishing his studies, he started an active concert activity as a pianist-concertmaster, currently thousands of concerts, television programs and competition performances have been performed. Active cooperation has been established with bass-baritone Egilus Silina; 90 concerts were held together there, as well as three CDs were recorded.
