Riga

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the... "Father of Montage". He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike , Battleship Potemkin and October , as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible . Eisenstein was born to a middle-class family in Riga, Latvia but his family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. His father Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein was of German-Jewish and Swedish descent, and his mother, Julia Ivanovna Konetskaya, was from a Russian Orthodox family. His father was an architect and his mother was the daughter of a prosperous merchant. Julia left Riga the same year as the Russian Revolution , bringing Sergei with her to St. Petersburg. Her son would return at times to see his father, who later moved to join them around 1910.Divorce followed and Julia deserted the family to live in France. At the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineering, Sergei studied architecture and engineering, the profession of his father.
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Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany. Kremer was born in Riga to parents of... German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels; then, in 1969, second prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition followed by first prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa; and finally first prize again in 1970 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in 1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming, serving as artistic director for 30 years.
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Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov , nicknamed "Misha" is a Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky... and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement. He then danced with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director. Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film The Turning Point.
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Imants Kalniņš is one of the most important composers in the history of Latvian music. Having studied classical, as well as choral music,... he has written six symphonies, several operas , oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs and is to be considered the first composer of intellectual rock music. During the 1960s, Kalniņš led the Liepāja rock band 2xBBM, which was extremely loved because of its heartfelt songs and hippy-like lifestyle. Kalniņš became the symbol of the spirituality, rebellion and worldview of the generation, and it was emphasized by the fact the band was forced to stop playing because of the pressure from official institutions. However, this doesn't stop the music of Kalniņš from being heard - it is played by the incredibly popular band Menuets , which plays songs almost exclusively by Kalniņš. During the 1970s, Kalniņš returned to writing symphonic music.
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Konstantin Sokolsky Russian singer . Sokolsky was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, but for most of his life lived in Riga, Latvia . There he worked... as a woodcutter and loader, until in 1928 at Riga's 'Mars' cinema he first appeared on stage as a singer. Initially, he tried to imitate Alexander Vertinsky , but later found his own style. He got acquainted with popular composer Oscar Strok, author of tango music, and became the first to sing all his new songs. In the same time, he himself wrote lyrics and music for several songs. In the 1930-40s, first with the Riga Bonzo Theatre and later individually, he went on tours of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, where he became very popular among different audiences, including many Russian émigrés.
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Raimonds Pauls is a Latvian and Soviet composer and piano player who is well known in Latvia and the former Soviet Union. Pauls was interested in... music since his childhood years and attended the Emils Darzins Music School. In 1958, Pauls graduated from the Latvian Academy of Music in Professor H. Braun's piano class. At that time he was already seen as an excellent piano player, he played in restaurants, learning jazz classics and contemporary songs. From 1962 to 1965 Pauls studied composition, and from 1964 to 1971 conducted the Latvian State Philharmonic's light music orchestra, in which he was also a pianist. In 1972, Raimonds Pauls proceeded to create an ensemble of Latvian radio, from which several music groups eventually emerged. Most notably, the group "Modo", in which one of the members was Zigmars Liepiņš, achieved significant success in Latvia and other parts of the USSR. In 1985, Pauls organized more music groups on the Latvian radio, which later cooperated with newer artists to provide professional help. At about that time, Raimonds Pauls started his cooperation with Russian singers.
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Marija Naumova is a Latvian singer. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and... has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese. In 2002 she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia with her song "I Wanna". Naumova was discovered by famous Latvian musician Raimonds Pauls in 1994 and after a year she performed on TV in searches for talent. She never won, but was noticed by the audience. In 1998, she performed in a concert celebrating the 100 years jubilee of George Gershwin. In March 1998 she performed on stage in concerts with famous Latvian musicians, and one of those concerts was recorded on CD. That gave her career a boost and she began to participate in several music events, television and radio shows, and give interviews for Latvian newspapers. Naumova's first solo album, which was completely in Russian, was released in 1999. In 2000 Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. Naumova was in the national finals but she became second behind Brainstorm.
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Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany. Kremer was born in Riga to parents of... German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels; then, in 1969, second prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition followed by first prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa; and finally first prize again in 1970 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in 1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming, serving as artistic director for 30 years.
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Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov , nicknamed "Misha" is a Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky... and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement. He then danced with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director. Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film The Turning Point.
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Artūrs Irbe is a former Soviet and Latvian professional ice hockey goaltender. He has played in the National Hockey League for the San Jose... Sharks, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets. He served as the goaltending coach for the Washington Capitals during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. Irbe left the team on June 11, 2011 to spend more time with his family. Irbe was drafted in the 10th round, 196th overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. His first professional hockey team was Dinamo Riga of the Soviet Hockey League . After playing in only 2 games during the 1986–1987 season Irbe got a chance to become Dinamo Riga's number one goaltender during the 1987–1988 season when their starting goaltender and Olympic champion, Vitali Samoilov went down with a long term injury. In his only full professional season, Irbe was outstanding in helping Dinamo Riga make it to the finals of the Soviet Hockey League where they eventually lost to perennial Soviet champions CSKA Moscow. During this period he also played for the Soviet Union in the World Championships in 1989 and 1990.
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Imants Kalniņš is one of the most important composers in the history of Latvian music. Having studied classical, as well as choral music,... he has written six symphonies, several operas , oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs and is to be considered the first composer of intellectual rock music. During the 1960s, Kalniņš led the Liepāja rock band 2xBBM, which was extremely loved because of its heartfelt songs and hippy-like lifestyle. Kalniņš became the symbol of the spirituality, rebellion and worldview of the generation, and it was emphasized by the fact the band was forced to stop playing because of the pressure from official institutions. However, this doesn't stop the music of Kalniņš from being heard - it is played by the incredibly popular band Menuets , which plays songs almost exclusively by Kalniņš. During the 1970s, Kalniņš returned to writing symphonic music.
more

Raimonds Pauls is a Latvian and Soviet composer and piano player who is well known in Latvia and the former Soviet Union. Pauls was interested in... music since his childhood years and attended the Emils Darzins Music School. In 1958, Pauls graduated from the Latvian Academy of Music in Professor H. Braun's piano class. At that time he was already seen as an excellent piano player, he played in restaurants, learning jazz classics and contemporary songs. From 1962 to 1965 Pauls studied composition, and from 1964 to 1971 conducted the Latvian State Philharmonic's light music orchestra, in which he was also a pianist. In 1972, Raimonds Pauls proceeded to create an ensemble of Latvian radio, from which several music groups eventually emerged. Most notably, the group "Modo", in which one of the members was Zigmars Liepiņš, achieved significant success in Latvia and other parts of the USSR. In 1985, Pauls organized more music groups on the Latvian radio, which later cooperated with newer artists to provide professional help. At about that time, Raimonds Pauls started his cooperation with Russian singers.
more