Northern Echoes Youth Choir Kamer

• Eric Whitacre (b. 1970): Lux Nova:
• 1 Whitacre: Lux Nova 04:23
• Jānis Ivanovs (1906 - 1983): Rudens Dziesma:
• 2 Ivanovs: Rudens Dziesma 03:25
• Knut Nystedt (1915 - 2014): Immortal Bach:
• 3 Nystedt: Immortal Bach 04:40
• Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946): Actus Caritatis:
• 4 Vasks: Actus Caritatis 05:42
• Eriks Ešenvalds (b.1977): O Salutaris Hostia:
• 5 Ešenvalds: O Salutaris Hostia 03:36
• Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978): Northern Lights:
• 6 Gjeilo: Northern Lights 04:53
• Total Runtime 26:39

Info for Northern Echoes

Kamēr... is a Latvian mixed youth choir based in Riga, Latvia, founded in 1990 by Māris Sirmais. A winner of multiple national and international prizes and awards. Kamēr... became the first and currently the only choir in the world having won the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing three times (2004, 2013, and 2019). The choir performs in various events both in Latvia and worldwide, and collaborates with renowned composers, musicians and orchestras.

Since June 2022, the artistic director and chief conductor of the choir is Jurģis Cābulis. The second conductor of Kamēr... is Patriks Kārlis Stepe. The former artistic directors are its founder Māris Sirmais (1990-2012), Jānis Liepiņš (2012-2018) and Aivis Greters (2018-2022).

The choir has two vocal coaches: Ansis Sauka, who works with the choir since its founding in 1990, and Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa, who joined our choir family in 2016, after the retirement of Aina Bajāre. Ansis works mostly with the male voices, and Jolanta with the female voices.

Over the years, Kamēr... has produced programs specially commissioned for the choir. Its biggest project to date is World Sun Songs (2008), which featured 17 new choral works inspired by the sun; the project included such world-renowned composers as Sir John Tavener, Giya Kancheli, Sven-David Sandström, Leonid Desyatnikov, John Luther Adams, Stephen Leek, Dobrinka Tabakova, Ko Matsushita, and others. Other examples of this concept includes the cycles Madrigals of Love (2010), Moon Songs (2012), and Amber Songs (2014), in which several celebrated composers wrote choral miniatures on love, the moon, or arrangements of Latvian folk songs, respectively.

More recently, Kamēr... has developed and taken part in various projects such as the concert exhibition “Kalpotājs. Blumbergs. Kamēr...” (2018), “Sea symphony” (2019, Aachen, Germany), musical “Westside story” (2019), “Penabur International Choir festival” (2019, Jakarta, Indonesia), documentary “Choir. Conductor. Kamēr... “ (2019), performance “Kamēr... on the river” (2020), “Leading voices” festival (2022, Utrecht, the Netherlands), audiovisual performance “Silence falls” (2022), “The New Reflections of the Waves” (2022), theatre play “A Christmas carol” and musical “Lady in the dark” (2022/2023).

Youth Choir Kamer
Jurģis Cābulis, conductor

Youth Choir Kamēr
A youthful passion combined with highly refined vocal skills and sensuous musicality - these are the qualities that best define the Youth Choir “Kamer…”. Founded in 1990 by Māris Sirmais, the choir is now under the artistic direction of principal conductor Jurgis Cābulis. The choir’s vocal coaches are Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa and Ansis Sauka.

The principal conductor and artistic director of the Youth Choir Kamēr… is Jurģis Cābulis, and its vocal coaches are Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa and Ansis Sauka. The choir was founded in 1990 by conductor Māris Sirmais, was led by Jānis Liepiņš from 2012 to 2018 and by Aivis Greters from 2018 to 2022.

Since its foundation, the choir has won dozens of diplomas, awards, and trophies at a variety of choral competitions. These include a prize at the Marktoberdorf Chamber Choir Competition in Germany in 1999, three European Grands Prix for Choral Singing in Gorizia (2004) and Arezzo, Italy (2013, 2019), as well as three championship prizes and gold medals at the World Choir Olympics in Xiamen, China, in 2006. Kamēr… has also received many Latvian Great Music Awards and has won the national choir competition a total of six times.

Kamēr… has developed programs specially commissioned for the choir. Its biggest project to date is World Sun Songs (2008), which featured 17 new choral works inspired by the sun; the project included such world-renowned composers as Sir John Tavener, Giya Kancheli, Sven-David Sandström, Leonid Desyatnikov, John Luther Adams, Stephen Leek, Dobrinka Tabakova, Ko Matsushita, and others. Other examples of this concept have included the cycles Madrigals of Love (2010), Moon Songs (2012), and Amber Songs (2014), in which several celebrated composers wrote choral miniatures on love, the moon, or arrangements of Latvian folk songs, respectively.

The choir has also actively worked toward the goal of synthesizing genres and means of expression. Examples of this effort have included scenic and choreographed performances of Jersikas derība (an oratorio by Līga Celma), The Christmas Legend (a musical tale by Ēriks Ešenvalds), and The Canticles of the Holy Wind (a large-scale scenic meditation by John Luther Adams).

To celebrate the special cooperation with artist Ilmārs Blumbergs who created the logo and most of the album art for the choir, a unique concert-exhibition Kalpotājs. Blumbergs. Kamēr... was held in 2018 at Rīgas mākslas telpa. The world premieres of the compositions in this album were enriched with artwork of Ilmārs Blumbergs.

Other stage partners of Kamēr... have included Gidon Kremer, Marta Sudraba, the orchestra Kremerata Baltica, Nicolas Altstaedt, Peter Schreier, Yuri Bashmet, Julius Berger, Maxim Rysanov, and many more.

Almost all of the choir's original music as well as various choral classics in the choir's repertoire have been recorded in a series of highly praised CDs. The latest of these are Pelēcis. Plakidis. Kamēr..., which celebrated the anniversaries of composers Georgs Pelēcis and Pēteris Plakidis, and the recording of the Kalpotājs. Blumbergs. Kamēr... program that was made in spring 2019.

Over the last twenty-five years, Kamēr... has achieved its special sound by cultivating its own signature performance style. Both full emotional surrender, a characteristic of amateur singers, as well as the strictest criteria for vocal quality, are of equal importance for the choir. This is expressed in the ellipsis encoded in the choir's name, Kamēr..., which means "while" in English. While we are still young, anything is possible...

Booklet for Northern Echoes