Concerts 2026
From 27 October to 13 November, the ARĒNA New Music Festival invites audiences to enter a world where the known encounters the unknown, light meets darkness, and reality merges with myth. This year’s festival is permeated by a sense of magic and mystery: from the spiritual light and trust in God found in the music of Pēteris Vasks, Arvo Pärt and Olivier Messiaen, to the allure of darkness, fear and the unpredictability of electronic sound; from prophecy and ritual to Morton Feldman’s fragile, almost weightless soundworld. At the festival’s culmination, myth enters our own time in the chamber opera The Abduction of Europa, bringing an ancient story face to face with the Europe of today. ARĒNA 2026 will be a journey between light and darkness, faith and fear, silence and sound – to a place where, for a moment, music allows us to glimpse beyond the boundaries of the visible world.
Festival Opening Concert. PĒTERIS VASKS QUARTET
Tuesday, October 27, 7:00 p.m. at Riga Reformed Church
Performers: Pēteris Vasks Quartet: Magdalēna Geka (violin), Egīls Šēfers (clarinet), Kristaps Bergs (cello), Iveta Cālīte (piano)
Programme: Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, Pēteris Vasks
THE LIGHT OF DARKNESS
Wednesday, October 28, 7:00 p.m. at Riga Reformed Church
Performers: Woodpecker Project: Andris Dzenītis, Gatis Zaķis, Ritvars Garoza (electronics), Arvīds Kazlausks (saxophones), and students of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
Programme: Works by Woodpecker Project and composition students of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
PROPHECIES
Thursday, October 29, 7:00 p.m. at Riga Reformed Church
Performers: Helēna Sorokina (voice), Krassimir Sterev (accordion, Austria), Marco Sala (bass clarinets, Austria)
Programme: Giacinto Scelsi, Beat Furrer, Chaya Czernowin, Rebecca Saunders, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, and premieres of new works by Klaus Lang and Santa Bušs
CONVERSATIONS WITH FELDMAN
Thursday, November 5, 7:00 p.m. at Riga Reformed Church
Performers: Andrzej Karałow (piano), Kaspars Kurdeko (percussion)
Programme: Morton Feldman, improvisations by Andrzej Karałow and Kaspars Kurdeko
THE ABDUCTION OF EUROPA. A Chamber Opera by Gundega Šmite and Dimitris Maronidis
Friday, November 13, 7:00 p.m. at Hanzas perons
Performers: Ensemble EUNOIA, Katrīna Neiburga (scenography), Oskars Pauliņš (lighting design)
Programme: World premiere of the chamber opera by Gundega Šmite and Dimitris Maronidis