Baroque choir Collegium Choro Musici Riga

The Baroque choir COLLEGIUM CHORO MUSICI RIGA was founded in late 2010. The inspiration for establishing this musical ensemble came after a successful performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin” (Vespro della Beata Vergine) on 7 November 2010 in Riga, when the project’s artistic director Māris Kupčs decided to approach the most promising performers, encouraging them to form a new ensemble of twelve singers specialising in Renaissance, Baroque and Classical repertoire and working alongside the existing Baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga.

In collaboration with the Baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga, the choir has staged operas such as Johann Adam Hiller’s “The Hunt” (Die Jagd), Franz Adam Feichtner’s “Cephalus and Procris” (Cephalus und Procris) and “Cyrus and Casandana” (Cyrus und Casandana), Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” (Dido and Aeneas), as well as early Baroque operas – Jacopo Peri’s “Eurydice” (Euridice), Claudio Monteverdi’s “Orpheus” (L’Orfeo), Giacomo Carissimi’s “Jephthah” (Jephte), Marco da Gagliano’s “Daphne” (La Dafne) and many others.

An important part of the choir’s repertoire consists of 17th- and 18th-century music composed in the territory of present-day Latvia, such as Johann Valentin Meder’s St Matthew Passion, Johann Adam Hiller’s “The Hundredth Psalm” (Psalm 100), Gottlieb Heinrich Traugott Perle’s cantata “Psalm 98”, as well as well-known Baroque compositions such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St Luke Passion” (St. Luke Passion) and Mass in B minor (H moll messa), George Frideric Handel’s “Brockes Passion” (Brockes passion), Heinrich Schütz’s “Magnificat” (Magnificat), Orlando di Lasso’s “Prophecies of the Sibyls” (Prophetiae Sibyllarum) and others.

Collegium Choro Musici Riga has been invited to participate in international festivals – “Vocal Fantasy Festival” (2019, Israel), “Jõulumuusika festival” (2019, Estonia), while together with Collegium Musicum Riga it has taken touring opera productions to prestigious festivals such as the “Krakow Opera Summer Festival” (2011, Poland) and  the “International Chamber Opera Festival” in Saint Petersburg (2016 and 2019, Russia). Close collaborations have also developed with acclaimed European early music interpreters and conductors David Shemer (David Shemer) and Franck-Emmanuel Comte (Franck-Emmanuel Comte).

Collegium Choro Musici Riga regularly participates in “Vivat Curlandia!”, the festival of music and art from the era of the Kettler Dukes of Courland and Semigallia (Bauska, Latvia), where 17th-century operas are staged under conductor Māris Kupčs. Meanwhile, its participation in the Riga Historical  Music and Dance Festival brings forgotten Baroque scores to light for their first performances, including George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “The Choice of Hercules” (The Choice of Hercules), François Rebel and François Francœur’s heroic pastoral “Ismene” (Isméne) and others.