Old-Riga Walking Tour (part viens)

With the weather getting nicer, we finally got a chance to start checking-out Old-Town using the "Self-guided Walking Tour" from the magazine "Riga in Your Pocket."  As instructed, the Richardsons started at the Freedom Monument and walked up the hill of Bastejkalns park for a good look at the city center and Old-Town.

Designed by Latvian architect Karlis Zale, the Freedom Monument was built in 1935.  The woman at the top is named Milda.  The two cute girls with matching jackets are named Sarah and Leah.

Next we walked across the street to see one of the important defensive structures of Riga, the Powder Tower.  The Museum of War is right next door.  If you look carefully, you can see Niki, Sarah, and Leah at the bottom right...this is a tall building!

Walking down Torna, the Jacobs Barracks are directly next to the Powder Tower.  They were built in the mid to late-1700s after the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia (Russia won that one, by the way).  Painted yellow, it now features souvenir shops and cafes.

We then walked through the Swedish Gate, cut through an existing structure in 1698.

We then turned onto Troksnu iela, which is a really narrow street, probably much like streets existed in many European cities in the 16th-18th centuries.  From our perspective today, it presents a very closed-in feeling!

We then ran into St. James Church and the Parliament building (Saeima).

We then meandered through a few streets (actually, we were a bit lost, but soon found our way with the help of a friendly person willing to show us to the next site) and found the "Three Brothers."  Each of the three houses represents a different style of Middle Ages home construction.

From there, we walked to Riga Castle, now the home of the History Museum of Latvia and the official residence of the President of Latvia.

We continued onward to Doma  laukums (Cathedral Square) and checked out the Dome Cathedral in warm/sunny conditions for a change!  It was originally built in the early 13th century under the leadership of Albert of Riga and is the largest medieval church in the Baltics.  Apparently Albert was a military leader whose primary mission in life was to lead military troops and convert people to Christianity, similar to a crusader.  Anyway, he founded Riga in 1201 and established a military order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword.

At this point, we took a break from the prescribed tour (suggested in the brochure) and checked-out the Daguva.

The Anglican Church is directly across the street from this river.  Bill has a trumpet recital there with organist Kristine Adamaite on April 28th (beginning at 13:00, if you live in Latvia and are interested in attending!).

Everyone was quite tired by this point in our walking tour, so we began walking home.  On the way, we ran into the "Cat's House," named for two black cat sculptures sitting high atop an old building.

Stay tuned for more walking tour adventures in a week or so!

Priecīgas Lieldienas!

Happy Belated Easter everyone!  As we mentioned briefly in a previous post, we have found a really nice place to worship, the Rīgas Reformātu Draudze (Riga Reformed Church).  Sunday services are held at 4 p.m. in the Methodist Church building on Akas iela.  Although the worship services are in Latvian, many in the congregation speak excellent English and the sermons/prayers are translated for us via headsets...it's kind of like a faith-based United Nations meeting!

With lyrics projected onto a wall, the music is sung by the congregation and led by a worship team of excellent musicians (a fantastic way to work on Latvian pronunciation, by the way!).  Here's an example of their music, recorded at the Good Friday service last week (April 2 Hymns)

At the beginning of the service on Friday, the musicians performed Bob Chilcott's Peace Mass.  Click here for the Kyrie.  In addition to playing the trumpet, Bill conducted a few of the movements and sang a little, but not so loudly as to drown out the crystal-clear straight-tone singing of Anete, Liga, Kristine, Anete, and Gundega.  We had a lot of fun preparing this music.

Of course, Sarah and Leah are excited to play with some Latvian friends at the church.  We all enjoy our time there.  Many thanks to Carl and Becky Chaplin (Carl and Becky's blog) for introducing us to pastor Ungars Gulbis and the congregation of the Riga Reformed Church!

As usual, we had fun Easter morning activities with a visit from everyone's favorite hare.  We will say good-bye for now with some pictures!

Springtime in Riga

With temperatures reaching the 50s today (F), it felt like a good time to update our blog.  We have had a very busy couple of weeks.  Bill was asked to serve as a member of the brass jury for school competitions throughout the country with fellow brass players and JVLMA teachers Arturs Berzins (trombone), Gatis Evelyons (horn), and Janis Retenais (euphonium and tuba).  Together they have provided ratings and feedback to students of a wide variety of ages and ability levels in seven Latvian cities - Riga, Liepaja, Ventspils, Jelgava, Jurmala, Rezekne, and Daugavpils.

At present, instrumentalists begin taking lessons between the ages of 7 and 9, a little earlier than most band students would begin in the United States.  Latvian students will often attend school from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., then take lessons and attend music theory class in the afternoon.  It seems that the emphasis is on solo playing rather than large ensemble playing here...we haven't heard of many school bands that meet on a regular basis.  It is interesting to note the differences between music education programs between our countries.  As with most countries around the world (Latvia and the U.S. included), current economic conditions certainly present challenges and opportunities for innovative ways of doing things!

For Bill's most recent trip, an overnighter in Rezekne and Daugavpils, the Janis Retenais Autobus was completely full with seven people, a tuba, and two trumpets.  Here are the three woodwind adjudicators (Ainars, Mareks, and Lara) chatting with Gatis.

While waiting for woodwind judges to finish their work (one location had 54 flute players!), the brass guys had a chance to do a little sightseeing.  In Liepaja they celebrated the "Rock & Roll" heritage of the city...

visited a Russian Orthodox Cathedral (brass-players' sense of humor is the same on any continent, btw!)...

hung-out at the beach and were amazed at how icy the shoreline was...

then freaked-out when Bill put his foot through the ice!

Yep, that's a picture of the drying-off process which, if you notice at the top of the picture, included Janis placing Bill's shoe on the dashboard and cranking the heater!  Too funny.

On to other things, Bill played a trumpet solo, Night Sun Journey by American composer Meg Bowles, on a March 16 recital featuring the JVLMA Wind and Percussion Faculty.  It was really great to hear such talented musicians perform in the JVLMA "Great Hall."

Bill also performed two compositions with Riga's City Jazz Big Band for a kind of variety-show on Sunday, March 21.  As a jazz ensemble director in the U.S., it was really fun for him to be "on the other end" and take a trumpet solo on Afro Blue.  The ensemble is quite good with really fine players, and the concert was at the Mazā Gilde, a performance venue in Old-Town. 

Friday, March 26, marked the beginning of the J. Jurjānu International Brass Competition, hosted by the JVLMA.  The event began with a concert of the JVLMA Brass Ensemble under the direction of Janis Retenais.  Bill played piccolo trumpet on Old French Dances which can be viewed here (Old French Dances, part 1, Old French Dances, part 2).  We're still working out some issues with the camera tripod, but this will give you the idea!  Two of Bill's trumpet students, Janis Ivuskans and Guntis Supe, are participating in the competition this week, for which we wish them luck.

Outside of Bill's work-related activity, our family has had some really fun experiences over the past few weeks.  As Sarah mentioned in the previous blog post, we attended the Riga Cirks (Circus), right across the street from our apartment.  On March 8 we celebrated "International Women's Day."  We also attended a childrens' opera, Hansel and Gretl, presented by the JVLMA Opera Studio and recently attended a performance of the Prokofiev ballet Romeo and Juliet at the National Opera.  They performed the "Rostropovic Version" with the orchestra on stage and dancers both behind and in-front of the orchestra, which was very effective.  Upon explaining the plot to the girls, Leah's response was "Wow...there's a whole lot of dying in this area!"  You've got that right, kiddo.

While at the ballet, Niki and the girls met some Americans from Houston, Texas, and began to chat.  It turns out that one of them, Mary Ring, attended Northwest Missouri State University!

Mary works with "Julianna Poor Memorial Counseling Center" at Houston's First Baptist Church and has traveled to Latvia over the past several years to assist with counseling programs here.  Now who would have thought that people with ties to Maryville, Missouri, would randomly meet in the 2nd Balcony of the Latvian National Opera house?!  Unbelievable...

Last weekend we took the tram to go ice-skating at LIDO on Krasta iela.  We're starting to get more used to public transportation here, which is a good thing.  Sarah and Leah had never skated, so we had a great time with the penguins.

Because Sarah's class is studying penguins (btw, check out the Horace Mann 3rd level class blog here!), we're calling the penguin with the tie "Captain Cook."

The girls both did an excellent job and had a great time.  We are really fortunate to have two daughters who actually like each other and, in general, play well together.  Here are some pictures we took yesterday morning in the sunshine!

Here's a picture of money we use in Latvia.  The "Lat" is worth roughly $2 U.S., depending on the exchange rate.  A "Santim," similar to a penny, is worth about 2 cents.  The following coins are found in the picture 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 Santims...plus 1 and 2 Lats.  The paper bills are in 5, 10, and 20 Lat denominations.

Daylight-savings time actually begins today for us, two weeks later than in the U.S., so it's probably best to sign-off for now.  More updates to come!

Posted by Sarah (with a little help from dad)

Recently we went to see the Rigas Cirks (circus).  It is on the other side of the street we live on and has been there for over 100 years.  There were acrobats, animals, and some crazy clowns.  We had a great time!  My favorite part were the acrobats.  There was an act where a lady tied 1 foot to a rope and a man held on to the other foot making the lady do the splits.  Then the rope lifted them in the air about 30 feet!

Today we went to a children's opera production of Engleberts Humperdinks Ansitis un Grietina (Englebert Humperdink's Hansel and Gretl).  It was at the Jazepa Vitola Latvijas Muzikas Akademijas and was presented by the Operstudija FIGARO.  It was very nice, but the witch had a 3 inch-long nose!  The singing, dancing, costumes, and scenery were all very, very good.  Leah and I really liked it.


Here is a picture of me reading a Nancy Drew Notebook while my dad was practicing trumpet.  All the different rooms at the music academy are very nice, but very different from each other. Some of them have beautiful views of the Opera House and the park.  Here is another picture...

That's all for now.  Visu labu!

Museums, Weather, and The Nutcracker

 

We visited the Natural History Museum of Latvia on February 25.  Since it's located at the corner of K. Barona iela and Merkela iela (just across from the Music Academy), we didn't have a long way to walk!  There were Palaeontology, Geology, Zoology, Entomology, and Anthropology exhibits broken into two sections; those specific to Latvia and the Baltics, and those from around the world.  The presentation of artifacts was very well put-together, and there were lots of fun interactive rooms for the kiddos...

 

Very interesting, and quite affordable!

 

In case this seems like a gigantic 6-month vacation, Bill must point out that most of his teaching and playing takes place in the late-afternoons and evenings.  Since we're not into a lot of "night-on-the-town" activity, this works out pretty well for everybody.

We had a spell of warmer, above-freezing weather in which the temperature and light-rain melted a great deal of snow.  When this happens, falling ice is a bit of an issue.  We're taking care to watch for potential problem areas and trying to avoid them, if possible.  Here's a picture to demonstrate.

 

We know that this happens in big cities around the globe, it's just that we don't see the following in Maryville, Missouri, U.S.A.

 

And here's the shot zoomed-out!

 

That's got to be a rough gig.

On Saturday, February 27, we attended a matinee performance of The Nutcracker at the National Opera house.  The dancing, music, and scenery were amazing, and we had a fantastic time.  Tickets were quite affordable for this as well!

 

Big fun.

Today, March 3, we walked through Central Market to look at various stuff and then visited the Dolls Art Museum in the Spikeru area, which is kind of like a newly-refurbished "warehouse district," much like the 18th and Vine area in Kansas City, Missouri (for you Kansas City jazz fans out there!).  Although pictures weren't allowed in the actual museum, we took a few shots in the main lobby.

 

There were some fun interactive art games, mostly involving sand.  We had a little bit of drama when, as we were just about ready to put on our coats and leave, some military police and a K-9 bomb-sniffing dog entered the museum!  As they proceeded to perform a security sweep, we were informed that Valdis Zatlers, President of the Republic of Latvia, was taking a tour.  We stayed an extra 20 minutes for an opportunity to meet him, but decided to leave and get home before dark!  Anyway, his security guards (and dog) seemed friendly and business-like.  All in all, a fun week for the Richardson family.