The story of Līga Celmas-Kursiete, chief conductor of the school youth song and dance festival, leader of the Jelgava 4th secondary school girls’ choir “Spīgo”, this time about the Seventh Festival, which was held in free Latvia in 1995. She participated in them both as a singer and as a forester in a brass band.
“Holiday chest”
Bright events permeate the history of the School Youth Song and Dance Festival. How old is it? When did teachers in parishes and parish schools realize that teaching to read, write and count alone is not enough for a child’s development?
On the winds of change, the winds of awakening, personalities and the cycle of expansion “Holiday chest” tells professionals in their field, erudite eyewitnesses and experienced participants.
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The experience and observations gained there were very useful later on when getting into the conductor’s shoes. Understanding how to make a song light up and how important the lyrics are, how to move the audience and make the Song Festival a family holiday is born then…
“The main character and star of this holiday was my mother Liena Celma, because the girls’ choir she led won the group of music choirs,” Līga Celma-Kursiete recalls with joy and satisfaction.
“And this holiday was especially special because in this show, when this victory was won, there was a reunion and symbiosis of our Strain family, which has never happened after that. now I was a successful lawyer, I was a 10th grade student and I was in the last row of the choir, my mother, of course, conducted the choir, but in the end we sang “Good morning, the flower!” is wonderfully sparkling, bright, sonorous, melodic – a tribute to my mother and choir girls. the “We were the first sopranos to pick it up brightly and loudly, across the entire University Hall!”
The conductor also reveals: “In the process of rehearsals, I remember my first observations of what it might be like to get into a conductor ‘s shoes.
Ilze Vazdika also did it wonderfully, peeled off the top layer of a simple folk song and discovered a mythical layer, which, of course, we had not noticed before. I remember how that song then shone and how interesting it became to sing it!
After that I noticed it and learned a lot from Māris Sirmā, singing in the choir “While …” – how important for Māris was working with a text, working with a word. When we had a deeper understanding of the meaning of the song, we were better able to take it to the listener immediately afterwards. “
Photo: from Līga Celmas-Kursiete’s personal archive
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At that time, the show took place in the big hall of the University of Latvia. “The White Hall and its wonderful acoustics are so impressive that after that – if I had to sing or conduct somewhere else, there was always such a bit of disappointment – because the University Hall is a queen in a way.
I knew that you should not look at the jury, and yet – after the performance, I looked in the direction of the corner of the eye: the chairman of the jury was Jānis Dūmiņš, and he looked satisfied, “recalls Līga Celma-Kursiete.
She has also participated in this festival as a member of the brass band, as she has played the horn. “And I managed to spend a couple of festivals, including an adult, as an orchestra. when our zone did not play, but other zones played, we actively competed with the audience as much as we could – rhythmically raising our instruments.
At one point, Edgars Podiņš – simply a colossal man, a couple of years younger than me, also a member of the orchestra – grabbed me by the hand and dragged me across the large square that separates the participants from the spectators.
We ran across the square, met the singers of our school who had come to the concert as participants, and created a huge chain that, like a snake, swept through the ranks of spectators, gathering more and more young people.
This huge snake bent through the ranks of Mežaparks spectators – it was just a colossal, unforgettable party! “
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