21 November 2008
Gibraltarian appointed Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Internationally acclaimed conductor, Karel Mark Chichon, is the new Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO). His contract begins in September 2009 and expires in June 2012. He will conduct a minimum of eleven weeks in Riga every concert season, as well as tours and recordings.
This follows months of long negotiations between the Karel’s Management and the Latvian Government where they succeeded in increasing the orchestra’s budget by 25% and obtained an undertaking from the Government to build a new concert hall for the orchestra by 2012.
The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra is considered one of the finest orchestras in the world. Leading conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Kiril Kondrashin, Bruno Walter, Neeme Järvi, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin and soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Micha Maisky, David Oistrach, Gidon Kremer, Sviatoslav Richter and Van Cliburn have performed with the orchestra throughout its unique musical history. The orchestra currently has an annual budget of over 7,000,000EUR with 100 full-time professional musicians under its employ. It performs an average of 65 concerts a year, which include weekly concerts during its concert season (from September to May every year), together with recording work and touring throughout the world.
The LNSO is the main orchestra that serves the city of Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Riga has a population of approximately one million inhabitants and is the largest city of the Baltic States. The Historic Centre of Riga has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city is particularly notable for its extensive Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) architecture, which UNESCO considers to be unparalleled anywhere in the world. Riga has a thriving economy. Business and leisure travel to Riga have increased significantly in recent years due to improved infrastructure. Most tourists travel to Riga by air via Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states, which was renovated and modernized in 2001 on the occasion of Riga's 800th anniversary. In recent years, the face of Riga has undergone notable changes. Foreign commercial trade through Riga has been on the increase and received new impetus on May 1, 2004 when Latvia became a member of the European Union. Riga accounts for about half of the total industrial output of Latvia, focusing on the financial sector, public utilities, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, wood processing, printing and publishing, textiles and furniture, and communications equipment manufacturing. The port of Riga is an important cargo shipping center. It is the main all-weather port in the Baltic and has been growing significantly in recent years due to increased trade with other ex-Soviet states and China.
The Managing Director of the LNSO, Ints Dalderis, commented “Maestro Chichon is the only conductor with whom our orchestra gives 100% for every concert he conducts. No other conductor who performs with us gets such a high level of performance as he does and the relation between him and the orchestra is really productive and in a very constructive and positive atmosphere. That together with his international reputation and the fact that he is the only conductor in Riga who has a legion of fans who he attracts for sold-out concerts every time he conducts in Riga – he was our first choice for a long time and we are very happy he has finally accepted our invitation. With Maestro Chichon we can look forward to a happy future full of possibilities and growth”.
Details of Maestro Chichon’s salary have not been released.
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