Confusion Arises Among the Choir Regarding the Selection Criteria for the Song Festival Choir Wars.

The choir members emphasize that the Riga Project Choir was not founded to participate in the Song Festival. It has existed for five years. Many of its members used to be members of highly valued youth choirs – “Kamēr…”, “Sola”, “Voices” and others.

The choir was created and directed by the American conductor Christopher Walsh-Sinka, the collective does not receive municipal or state funding, but it has an active concert activity. The rehearsal schedule is adapted to the fact that the majority of the participants are family members, but the format of the activity prevents it from fitting into the Song Festival tradition, Teterovskis said, emphasizing that he is speaking as the chairman of the Song Festival Society, not a member of the jury. He notes that the Song Festival is a daily rehearsal process and the project choir can also become such a choir.

Conductor Vanags noted that the management of the Riga Project Choir applied for participation in the Song Festival late, when several stages of preparation had already been missed. The conductor is said to have been ready for the choir to participate in joint rehearsals and sing in the show, but without pretending to participate in choir wars. It has been decided to provide such an opportunity to the Riga Project Choir. Another choir – “MoonBeam” directed by Nora Kalniņa – has joined the Song Festival on similar terms.

The director of the Latvian National Cultural Center, Signe Pujāte, emphasized that this is a new situation in the choir industry, which is in contrast to the accumulated experience of amateur choirs, their regular rehearsal process, participation in inter-holiday events.

This is a new offer when the choir is artistically strong and can choose other types of instruments to prepare their performance and join the joint process, which in this case is the tradition of the Song and Dance Festival, Pujāte notes.