PROJECTS
Duo des Trois Frontières sax & piano
Two musicians from different European countries have met in the region of Trois Frontières and created together duet in 2021. The repertoire includes original compositions by French and Russian composers, as well as arrangements for saxophone and piano (Glinka, Ibert, Rimski-Korsakov, D'Indy, Tchaikovsky, Demersmann, Tcherepnin).
This duo composed by Ilze Lejina (saxophone/Latvia) and Thomas Rigutto (piano/France-Italy).
Photo: Agnese Kalmane
Viņš un Viņa Elle et Lui
Photo: Amadine Gries
Duo "Viņš un Viņa" (Elle et Lui) - She is a classical musician and comes from Latvia. He is a jazz musician and lives in France. The meeting of two musicians with different cultures and universes.
Together they play since 2006, producing original music combining Latvian folklore and electronics, as well as revisited French chansons.
Viņš – Fred Hormain (guitar, voice, saxophone and electronics)
Viņa – Ilze Lejiņa (saxophone, violin, birbyne, kokle and voice)
Dzērves Latvian folklore group from Luxembourg
The Luxembourg Latvian folklore group Dzērves met for the first time in March 2007. About 400 Latvians work at the EU institutions in Luxembourg. Among them, there are many Latvian parents whose children were born in Luxembourg or started school there – in a different culture and language. They started weekend meetings to help children discover their national heritage.
The folklore group Grodi helped lay a strong foundation for the Dzērves in June 2007. We learned about summer solstice traditions and some of us experienced the best ever midsummer night that year. It became clear that everybody – parents and children alike – wanted to sing. Since then we have learned much more about traditional culture from Iļģi, Budēļi, Laiva, Kokle, Vilki, the Dance Club and others who generously shared their experience, knowledge, songs and dances with us.
We perform songs from all the regions of Latvia, celebrate traditional festivals and dance Latvian dances. We also play the violin, the traditional Latvian kokle, the accordion, the drums, the zither and the pipe. The most important thing, however, is that we keep the Latvian culture alive abroad so that our roots are not lost.