On the night of September 22, Sinfonietta Rīga 12th concert season was opened at the Great Guild Hall with a rich and emotionally saturated concert programme. Lead by conductor Normunds Šnē, the orchestra performed works by Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Haydn and Johann Sebastian Bach. Latvian music scene was represented with the premiere of a new work,  Euphoria by ingenious Andris Dzenītis. The special guest of the evening was the brilliant violinist Vadim Gluzman, former student of distinguished professor Romāns Šnē.

                As expected, majority of the new season's concerts will take place at the Great Guild Hall, but the orchestra will perform also at other concert halls in Latvia and abroad. Sinfonietta Rīga concerts this season will be embellished by several internationally highly acclaimed musicians. First, in the beginning of October, as part of the Autumn Chamber Music Festival, a student of Astor Piazzolla – the fiery Argentinian bandoneon player Marcelo Nisinman will treat the audience to programme “Tango from Buenos Aires to Paris”. He will be joined by renowned Latvian pianist Diana Ketler.  Sinfonietta Rīga has been trusted to perform at the closing concert of the festival as well, together with the outstanding Italian violinist Lorenza Borrani.

                In November, we eagerly await the premiere of “Demontāžas estētika”, the new work of Latvian composer Platon Buravitsky, who recently became a sensation at the Sansusī festival. And as part of the European Christmas festival we will welcome the wonderful flautist Dita Krenberga and charismatic  German conductor Christoph Poppen for the programme “Mendelssohn's Overture and Mozart's “Prague Symphony””.

                 The second part of the season in 2018 will be just as excellent. In January, the celebrated German violinist Kolja Blacher will return to Riga with Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto; and in late February the wonderful pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout will perform two Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concerts as part of the Vienna Classics series.

                The interplay among the compositions of Jonathan Harvey and the young Latvian composers Matīss Čudars and Krists Auznieks on March 17 promises to be charged with cosmic energy; and in the concert dedicated to the Centenary of Poland, comprised of works by Polish masters and a selection of popular works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the orchestra will be lead by seasoned conductor Zbigniew Graca.

               In the season's culmination Sinfonietta Rīga will leaf through the pages of the gallant century's grandmaster Joseph Haydn and 20th century's British classic Benjamin Britten, and will allow the talent of French horn player Hervé Joulain to shine brightly in Richard Strauss' Horn Concerto.