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.

Symphony Orchestra and Sigulda

Last week was quite busy with musical activity.  Bill played 3rd trumpet and the muted piccolo trumpet solo on Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for 3 Childrens' Concerts at the Liela Gilde (Large Hall...home of the Latvian National Symphony) on Wednesday, February 17.

 

          Trumpeters Janis Ivuskans, Viljams Ricardsons, and Guntis Supe

The performance was broken into several parts, with a narrator discussing the music and other things about the orchestra and instruments.  Niki, Sarah, and Leah attended the first performance, which featured students from the Art Academy painting on-stage while the orchestra performed.  Although we didn't understand much of the conversation, the concept was very cool and we all had loads of fun.

On Friday, February 19, the J.V.L.M.A. Symphony Orchestra performed Pictures, a Latvian piece called Migla, and Chopin's Piano Concerto in E at the Great Hall on Barona iela.  Janis Ivuskans was called away to perform with the symphony in Liepaja, so Bill stepped-in to play principal trumpet for the performance.

 

On Saturday, we took a train ride to Sigulda, Latvia, with fellow Fulbrighters Ardyth, Gabe, and Tom.  This city features the luge/skeleton/bobsled track on which Latvian Olympic athletes train.  We rode the "soft bobslejs" on the actual track.  Here's a video we found that features our exact experience (minus sideways snow in near-blizzard conditions!):  Sigulda Soft Bobslejs

It...was...AWESOME!  Apparently, we reached speeds up to 70 Kilometers per hour, which is over 40 MPH, through 12 twists and turns.  Gabe and Tom were the first brave souls to take the plunge.

  

Needless to say, we had fun.  When we reached the bottom, two soft bobsleds were piled into a truck, along with the passengers.

 

 

                            Our truck passenger friends from Lithuania 

When we reached the top again, we traveled to the men's start (starts a bit higher and has 4 extra turns before joining-up with the women's start).  Here are some fun pics:

After we grabbed some lunch, we took a micro-bus to Turaida Castle, a 13th-century medieval structure.  We took a short hike...

  

  

then found the Watch Tower, which was open to the public.  Everyone walked all the way to the top through some steep, winding stairs and caught some neat scenery along the way.

 

Minus the castle and watch tower, the landscape looked a lot like Warsaw, Missouri, after a major snow. 

 

 

There was a museum that we visited for a short time.  We were a bit rushed because we didn't want to miss the early train home.  Sarah and Leah had never ridden a train before, so this was a fun experience on many different levels.  

 

  

We arrived back in Riga and are still talking about our trip to Sigulda.  Although there are many other places we will likely visit while in Latvia, it's likely that we will return to this beautiful place.