Contemporary music festival “Baltic Music Days 2026. We Live In Different Times”

The festival "Baltic Music Days 2026. We Live In Different Times" begins where time is always in motion: Riga Central Station. Between arrivals and departures, clock-time can suddenly turn into presence – listening as a way of meeting.

At the centre there is the Finnish composer's Tytti Arola’s "phōnḗ" (20’) for voices and tin can telephones. The title brings together phōnḗ – “sound, voice, speech, language”, and tēle – “far away, distant.” Each singer makes their own tin can telephone to sing into and “speak” through; during the piece, the choir sends imagined greetings across the world. phōnḗ is a reminder to listen to one another, to say what matters, and to stay playful, even across distance.

Commissioned for Nordic Music Days 2024 (with support from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Danish Ministry of Culture), this performance becomes a symbolic bridge between Riga and Liepāja, the Baltics and Scandinavia, past and future, inner and outer time.

Conductor: Valdis Tomsons

Choirs: Juventus Youth Choir, Minjona Women’s Choir, Dziesmuvara Mixed Choir

Free admission — open to everyone!

About festival

Two Latvian cities Rīga and Liepāja will host the central contemporary music event in the Baltic states this April. The Baltic Music Days annually rotate between Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. This year, the festival with a motto “We Live In Different Times” initiates a close collaboration with the Nordic Music Days and the composers’ associations of Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, and the Faroe Islands. As a result, the programmes will feature not only outstanding works by Baltic composers, but also significant music from the Nordic countries, allowing us to better understand and appreciate our closest neighbors.