In 2026, from March 1 to 14, the Liepaja International Star Festival - one of the most important events in classical music in Latvia - will take place for the 34th time, which every year brings together outstanding artists from Latvia and abroad.
The 34th Liepāja International Stars Festival will open with a magnificent symphonic music concert, in which the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Guntis Kuzma, will perform together with Japanese violinist Yuki Hirano, as well as Belgian clarinetist Annelien van Wauwe.
This year’s festival opens with one of the most frequently performed masterpieces of the Romantic era — Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. In the soundscape painted by the Finnish composer, a cold northern wind glides over frozen lakes; restless dreams are born in the embrace of silence. In Sibelius’ hands, the violin becomes a solitary storyteller, and the concerto — a soul’s dialogue with the universe.
Taking us on this journey through the northern sonic world is the young Japanese violinist Yuki Hirano. Born in 2004, Yuki took up the violin at the age of five, and by thirteen had already won the Japan Student Music Competition, also receiving the prestigious Suntory Foundation for the Arts Award, offering her the rare chance to perform on the historic 1740 Angelo Toppani violin.
Her career highlights to date include a triumphant performance at the Vienna Classical Violin Competition and victory at the 7th International Jascha Heifetz Competition in 2025, where she also received a special prize for the best interpretation of a Heifetz arrangement. Since the autumn of 2023, she has been honing her artistry at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
In the second half of the evening, we will hear Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 — an opus in which Romanticism pulses with theatrical intensity. The concerto unfolds like a dialogue between two worlds — poetic dreaminess and nervous urban energy.
This emotional spectrum will be brought to life by Belgian clarinetist Annelien van Wauwe, whose artistry bridges lyrical sensitivity and dramatic boldness with rare authenticity. Since her victory at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich (2012), she has performed with such orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestras, the Brussels Philharmonic, and many others. Her clarinet has sung through the acoustics of Europe’s most celebrated halls — from Tonhalle Zurich to Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Her album “Belle Époque”, recorded with the Orchestre National de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, received the prestigious Opus Klassik Award in 2020 — a testament to her deep affinity with fin-de-siècle elegance.
The Festival, organized by the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, has become an integral part of Liepaja's cultural life, offering bright concerts, high -quality repertoire and unforgettable musical adventures.
One of the highlights of the festival will be a performance by the world-famous Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi. A sophisticated chamber music program will be offered at the festival by one of the most outstanding Polish ensembles – cellist Bartosz Koziak and pianist Krzysztof Książek. One of Latvia’s most brilliant pianists Reinis Zariņš will return to the Liepāja International Stars Festival with a deeply personal and spiritually rich program — Rihards Dubra’s monumental piano work “Visions of the Way of the Cross. Light”, awarded the Grand Music Prize in 2025 in the category of “New Work of the Year.” In turn, a magnificent and emotionally saturated finale is expected at the end of the festival, in which the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will perform with the brightest stars of Northern European music – conductor Christian Lindberg and pianist Roland Pöntinen.
The festival program is available here.
Tickets for the Festival concerts can be purchased at "Biļešu Paradīze".
The 34. Liepāja International Stars Festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Liepāja City and Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riga.
