Riga Dome Cathedral

Sacred music concert

AVE MARIA

Inga Kalna (soprano)

Yeugenia Lisitsina (organ)

Inga Kalna was born in Riga. She completed her voice studies at the Latvian Academy of Music and then graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she made quite an impression as La Contessa in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, with the orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis.

Inga Kalna has twice been awarded the Latvian Theatre Prize for excellent performances, and is one of the few artists who has been given the Great Music Award of Latvia three times in tribute to her outstanding achievements.

In Great Britain she has received the Goldberg Operatic Prize and the Bruce Miller Memorial Trust Award. In Germany, she was awarded the Wilhelm-Oberdörfer-Preis.

In 2001-2007 Inga Kalna was a soloist at the Hamburgische Staatsoper.

Additionally, the soprano sang to great praise at the Dresden Music Festival in a concert version of Johann Gottlieb Naumann's opera Cora und Alonzo conducted by Rene Jacobs. She continued this successful cooperation with Rene Jacobs singing the part of Armida in Händel's Rinaldo, with performances in Montpellier and at the Innsbruck Festival Weeks of Ancient Music. In 2007 she made her successful debut as Alcina in Opéra de Paris. This summer she is appearing as the First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Salzburg festival.

Moreover they made a CD-recording, which aroused great attention. With her brilliant and exceptionally flexible voice as well as with an impressive way of performing she proved here to be one of the outstanding singers of baroque music.

In addition to her comprehensive opera repertoire, Inga Kalna has fascinated her audiences with Bach's Passion music and requiems and masses by Beethoven, Gounod, Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Fauré.

She also has sung Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss and Mahler's 4th symphony. These productions were made under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Rene Jacobs, Alfred Eschwe, Ingo Metzmacher, Stefan Soltesz, Gerd Albrecht and Marc Soustrot.

The CD-recording of Händels Rinaldo directed by Rene Jacobs, Inga Kalna's role as Armida is awarded for the Opera-Recording 2003 by critics of the magazine.

The star of the show is Inga Kalna... She can make us laugh or cry; her expressive palette is vast, her voice big and thrilling.

Financial Times