Song Day in Vīgante Park

Staburags, surrounded by proverbs, and the time of flowers, invites us to the Song Day in Vīgante Park!

This summer, after the grand celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Song Festival last year, Aizkraukle district is marked by a number of significant and important events of the choir tradition.
It is known that as early as 1884, the Koknese Singing Society, with the participation of the Jurjāņi brothers, organised a trip in barges to Staburaga to sing about this beautiful place.  This is probably the first choir concert in this place, which took place in summer, exactly 140 years ago.
The activities of the Selija choirs and the organisation of song festivals in the park of the former Vīgantes Manor began during the independence of Latvia in the early 1920s. In 1923, the Song Day took place, but the first official Staburaga Song Festival, with Theodors Reiters as chief conductor, dates back to 24 June 1924 and this year we can celebrate its centenary. 
In 1936, a stage was built from the shore's limestone, designed by Jānis Križius, to accommodate up to 800 singers and 10 000 spectators. The 1939 Song Festival was the first to be held on the new stage and the last during Latvia's first free state. The festival continued to be held during the Soviet occupation, until the construction of the Plavinas hydroelectric power station, when the waters of the Daugava covered this cultural and historical landscape. In 1965, the last song festival was held on the Vīgante stage. Jānis Ozoliņš is the chief conductor, Leonīds Vīgners is invited as a guest from Riga, Gido Kokars, Jānis Brants, Tālivaldis Mekšs from Pļaviņas and others also conduct.

In April, with various concerts, we also celebrated the 120th birthday of the local composer Pēteris Barisons. The composer's birthplace "Skudras" is located in our municipality, in Staburaga parish. In the 1920s, four cultural societies were founded in the Sēlpils area, each with a choir. There was also a small orchestra. Pēteris Barisons, the young composer, conductor and, a quarter of a century later, the author of the unofficial anthem of the Song Festival "A Great Day for Song Today", also took an active part in all these musical activities. A local man we are proud of. 
To mark this important occasion and to continue the tradition, the choirs of the region will gather in Vīgante Park on 25 May.
The repertoire of the Song Day will include Latvian folk songs by Pēteris Barisons, folklorist, composer and organiser and chief conductor of the Latvian Song and Dance Celebration - Emilis Melngailis. These songs will be performed to commemorate the composer's 150th anniversary. 
Valters Kaminskis' "Song by the Daugava" has become a favourite not only among choristers in our region. It is performed on both banks of the Daugava at various events and is known as the unofficial anthem. This time, along with the classic of the men's choir repertoire - "Forever, Forever Will Be a Song", it will be performed as a tribute to the 95th anniversary of composer Walter Kaminsky.
Choirs from schools and cultural centres in the Aizkraukle region, as well as guest choirs, will take part in the Song Day, with more than 400 participants, under the direction of Eduards Grāvītis, chief conductor of the Aizkraukle region choirs.

Let's meet in Vīgantes Park, on the banks of the Daugava River by the breathing Staburaga rock, in this magical place where, for a century and a half, the voices of choirs have intertwined with the beauty of nature and the mysteries of the past.  
Dance at the end of the evening, free admission.