On the eve of summer - May 31 - classical music connoisseurs are invited to a special
concert Bel Canto Overture, where for the first time on one stage the outstanding pianist, laureate of prestigious international competitions and master of nuanced interpretation Andrejs Osokins will meet Brigita Reisone, the owner of a wonderful soprano voice.
Listeners will be able to surrender to music born on the world's greatest stages, but this time performed in the intimate and refined atmosphere of the “Ola Foundation” cultural space, creating an especially unforgettable musical experience.
The concert will feature the brightest arias from bel canto operas and piano interpretations by Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo. They will intertwine with Frédéric Chopin's refined piano works - nocturnes, mazurkas and études, written under the strong influence of Italian opera and considered the piano equivalents of the melodic masterpieces of bel canto arias, significantly expanding the expressive range of piano performance.
Concert: in 2 parts
Intermission: 30 minutes
Concert begins: at 19:00. Guests are warmly invited to arrive from 18:15 for a glass of
welcome wine and a viewing of the current art exhibitions.
Brigita Reisone is one of Latvia's brightest young opera talents, whose career is currently developing rapidly. In 2023, she participated in the final of the prestigious Hans Gabor Belvedere International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Dortmund, Germany. That same year, she participated in the final rounds of the Claudia Taev Competition for Young Opera Singers in Pärnu, Estonia, and in 2024 she won the Grand Prix at the international Monika Valavska-Krasovska Vocal Competition in Kraków, Poland. She has also enjoyed successful collaborations with symphony orchestras - in the summer of 2023, Brigita Reisone performed at the prestigious Jūrmala Festival together with the festival orchestra, internationally acclaimed Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antoņenko and conductor Ainārs Rubiķis in the concert Born in Latvia. Shortly afterward, together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and Martynas Staškionis conducting, she performed at an opera gala concert at Biržai Castle in Lithuania, as well as at the gala concert of the master classes with the North German Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Markus Bosch conducting in Rostock, Germany. Brigita made her debut on the stage of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet at the beginning of 2024 as Pipinella the canary in Jānis Lūsēns' opera Bird Opera. Following acclaimed debuts and guest performances, Brigita will soon perform at the Sigulda Opera Music Festival, portraying Annina in Verdi's opera La traviata alongside Maija Kovaļevska and Dmytro Popov, and will also make her debut as Papagena in Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Andrejs Osokins is one of Latvia's most outstanding and currently sought-after pianists. He is known as a charismatic and emotionally profound interpreter who, through his playing, can conjure extraordinary stories and make listeners experience every sound anew.
Andrejs has gained recognition in prestigious international competitions such as the Arthur Rubinstein
International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris, the Leeds
International Piano Competition and the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition
in Brussels. The pianist has performed on Europe's most prestigious stages - at the Berlin Philharmonie and
Konzerthaus, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, Milan's La Verdi hall and elsewhere, collaborating with internationally acclaimed artists and orchestras. Andrejs has recorded several albums, one of which, Two Worlds (2021), was nominated in four categories for the prestigious German classical music award Opus Klassik. Andrejs is a laureate of the Great Music Prize (2008), an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) and a Fellow of Trinity College of Music (FTCM) in London. Since 2024, he has headed the Piano Department of Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Andrejs is the founder and artistic director of the Osokins Freedom Festival for Ukraine, actively supporting charitable initiatives. For his concert activities and charitable campaigns supporting Ukraine, Andrejs Osokins was awarded the Order of the Three Stars in the rank of Officer (2023), the highest state honor in Latvia.
The concert by Brigita Reisone and Andrejs Osokins, Bel Canto Overture, is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy opera and piano music up close.
