Nightly letters to the dancer | Riga festival

Members

 

Elza Leimane – dance
Matīss Čudars – guitar
Arve Henriksen (Norway) – trumpet
Anders Jormin (Sweden) – double bass
Ivars Arutjunjans – percussion

Latvian Radio Choir
Conductor: Kaspars Putniņš

A concert experience where music breathes the night and dances toward the light.

This June, just before the summer solstice, the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Kaspars Putniņš invite you to a truly unique performance — a musical journey where choral music, jazz, and movement meet in a dreamlike space.

Especially for this event, composer and guitarist Matīss Čudars is creating a new work that brings together the choir with two of Scandinavia's most celebrated and imaginative musicians: Norwegian jazz trumpet player Arve Henriksen and Swedish bassist Anders Jormin. Both are known for their distinctive sound and deep artistry, and both are currently at the height of their international careers.

At the center of it all is renowned Latvian ballet dancer Elza Leimane, embodying the spirit of the performance. She becomes the dancer to whom these “night letters” are addressed — a figure who recieves letters of sound and responds in movement.

The concert will take place in the Riga Circus Arena, with the audience surrounding the performers in a 360° setting. Sound, light, and motion unfold from the center of the space, creating a fully immersive experience — intimate and atmospheric.

Matīss Čudars is one of Latvia’s most original voices in music — a guitarist and composer whose work blurs the lines between jazz, classical, and ambient music. In this piece, he creates a world where structure and spontaneity coexist, where the written and the improvised speak in the same breath.

Arve Henriksen is famous for his hauntingly soft, almost vocal trumpet sound. He’s a fixture at leading festivals and concert halls across Europe, and his ECM album Cartography is considered a landmark of ambient jazz.

Anders Jormin has long been a pillar of Nordic jazz, known for his deeply lyrical bass playing and collaborations with artists like Charles Lloyd and Tomasz Stańko. He’s also a respected teacher and composer, admired around the world for the quiet power of his music.

Ivars Arutjunjans (Ivars Aratyunyan), one of Latvia’s most exciting young jazz musicians, adds subtle, intuitive rhythm to the performance. In 2023 he won the Lielais Kristaps film award as Composer of the Year for his score to movie Bezkaunīgie (The Shameless), and previously toherther with Matīss Čudars received a Zelta Mikrofons award for the jazz album "Baltic" with trio “Auziņš – Čudars – Arutyunyan”

Together, these artists will create a performance that’s not just a concert, but an experience — where voices, soundscapes, and movement come together in a poetic ritual of sound and light, at a time when nature itself reaches its brightest peak.

 

Nightly Letters to the Dancer

A magical concert performance – music that inhales the night and dances in the glow

This June, just a few days before the summer solstice, the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Kaspars Putniņš invite the audience to an extraordinary and multidimensional art event – a concert performance that brings together choral music, jazz improvisation, and movement.

For this occasion, composer and guitarist Matīss Čudars is creating a new work in which two prominent figures of the European music scene will accompany the choir: Arve Henriksen, one of today’s most sought-after and original European trumpet players, and Anders Jormin, award-winning composer and double bass player whose name is associated with the legendary ECM record label and collaborations with contemporary jazz stars – Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, etc.

At the heart of the concert – Elza Leimane, one of Latvia's most acclaimed ballet dancers. She is the core of this mysterious message – the dancer to whom “the nightly letters” are sent as sounds and who responds in movement.

The concert will take place in the Riga circus arena, with the audience seated around the centre of the stage. This 360° format offers a special sense of proximity to the musicians, lighting and movement, allowing for an immersive spatial experience of sound.

Matīss Čudars is widely known as one of the most influential Latvian jazz guitarists of our time, praised also internationally. In his compositions, he blends the spontaneity of jazz, the structure of classical music and the richness of ambient moods. In this concert performance, he uses both his playing and composition to open doors to a world where choral music meets improvisation, allowing art to unfold in a controlled and planned way in the here and now – through the interplay of the moment and creativity.

Arve Henriksen has a distinctive sound – his trumpet seems to speak, often compared to a human voice. Henriksen is a frequent guest at the most prestigious festivals and concert halls in Europe. His album Cartography (ECM) has become a benchmark in contemporary atmospheric music.

Anders Jormin, on the other hand, has been one of the leading Scandinavian and Northern European double bassists for several decades, working with jazz icons such as Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stańko and others. He is also a music professor and teacher respected in both academic and jazz circles worldwide.

Ivars Arutjunjans is one of the most prominent jazz musicians of the new generation in Latvia, who has also gained recognition across Europe, and is a true master of jazz drums. He has also received the Lielais Kristaps 2023 award in the category "Composer of the Year" for his music for the film Bezkaunīgie (The Shameless). In 2019, together with Matīss Čudars, he received the Zelta Mikrofons award for the trio Auziņš–Čudars–Arutyunyan's album Baltic.

Together, the artists vow to create a unique and unforgettable event, where the voices of the Latvian Radio Choir, the improvisations of world-class musicians and Elza Leimane's aerial dance will fuse into a unified artistic experience – just as the profane and the mystical merge and nature approaches its summertime climax.