Soul Song

On Sunday, November 1, 2026, at Salgale Church.

The concert “Soul Song” is like a journey into Ēriks Ešenvalds’ creative world. It will be a special concert program in which the author’s personal storytelling will intertwine with live performances of his music. The concert is conceived as a journey through the composer’s creative world, revealing the emotional, spiritual, and personal sources of his music. When composing a piece, I surrender to the allure of creation, a journey whose winding paths steadily, but surely, lead me to the final conclusion of the score. And only then comes the exhale / Ēriks Ešenvalds.

The concert program brings together several lines essential to Ēriks Ešenvalds’ oeuvre, sacred and spiritual music, vocal and instrumental works, an organ solo piece, and excerpts from stage music. The pieces “Laudate Dominum,” “O Salutaris Hostia,” and “Adoremus in aeternum” reveal the composer’s world of spiritual music, where melodic beauty is joined with deep inner focus. Meanwhile, “David’s Songs” and “Soul Song” especially highlight the emotional and spiritual power of the human voice. The program’s stage and dramatic dimension will be enriched by the Librarian’s aria from Ēriks Ešenvalds’ opera “The Walled In,” while the organ solo work “Fantasy” will allow listeners to hear the timbral richness of the Salgale Evangelical Lutheran Church organ and the composer’s musical thinking on a broader, spatial scale of sound.

The performers’ lineup is of special importance in the concert’s artistic concept. Soprano Viktorija Majore brings vocal clarity, cantilena, and sensitivity to the program. Saxophonist Aigars Raumanis and Aigars Reinis, organist of Riga Cathedral, form a long-standing chamber music duo that celebrated the ensemble’s tenth anniversary in 2024. Over these years, Ēriks Ešenvalds’ pieces “Laudate Dominum” and “Adoremus in aeternum” have been regularly included in their concert programs, becoming an important part of the saxophone and organ repertoire. The professional experience of both laureates of the Grand Music Award, their interplay, and their understanding of the timbral balance between saxophone and organ make it possible to reveal Ešenvalds’ music in a nuanced and richly musical interpretation.

Ēriks Ešenvalds’ presence at the concert is especially meaningful. The composer will take part not only as the program’s author, but also as storyteller and host of the concert. In this way, listeners will be able to encounter the music in the context of its creation, through personal stories, travel impressions, revelations from the creative process, and the composer’s own view of his works. Such a concert format creates a direct and human connection between the author and the audience, making the experience of listening to music more emotionally intimate and at the same time more enlightening.

“Soul Song” is an invitation to listen not only to the music, but also to the person who created it, to meet the composer in the space of his own music and embark together on a journey whose destination is the final conclusion of the score and, after it, the exhale.

The concert is held in cooperation with the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the Salgale Evangelical Lutheran congregation.

Admission to the concert is by donation for the upkeep of the church.