Polish journey to Latvia in search of gold

Vocal workshop festival that breaks the walls on the way to improvisation

For the second year in a row, a bunch of Polish musicians visited Latvia — they came thanks to Santa Šillere and Līga Kupča, local jazz singers. This is a really nice initiative because jazz musicians always want to learn something new, try something out that they haven’t tried before, and play with the musicians they aren’t yet acquainted with because this way, an amazing energy is created between you, the one you cannot repeat under any circumstances. And when the guests from abroad arrive, it’s even better because then absolutely different cultures meet, and they become a source of inspiration for both sides. Such programs help musicians not only learn something new but also create stronger bonds with their colleagues because the festival lasts for many days in a row, and our beloved «M/Darbnīca», as usual, creates an atmosphere where the musicians, both young and experienced, can feel free.

So every night, the festival participants had an opportunity to spend some time together, talk, and jam in a pleasant atmosphere, and after coming to one of the jams on the third or fourth festival day, one could notice that a wall between the teachers and students doesn’t exist anymore — everyone gathers together, everything is friendly and creative. We could attend almost all of the festival concerts and talk to some of the participants. So the photo galleries from the events are available on the «Flickr» profile of our magazine, as well as our «Facebook» page.

Just as we can see from the name, the main part of the traveling «Voicingers On Tour» festival is workshops that this year took place at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music for six days in a row. The teachers and mentors this year were both among foreign guests (festival idea author and artistic leader Grzegorz Karnas from Poland, Ganna Gryniva from Ukraine, Marta Kloučkova from the Czech Republic, Manu Domergue from France, Natalia Kordiak, Mateusz Mateusz Szewczyk, Grzegorz Maslowski from Poland, Edilson Sanchez from Columbia) and Latvians Edgars Cīrulis, Rūdolfs Macats and voice and body releasing teacher Dana Indāne-Surkiene.

Workshop attendants could grab their inspiration and know more about voice, improvisation, rhythm, musical language, and much more, instantly putting their knowledge into practice led by experienced mentors. After the workshops, we met the attendants in the Aristīda pagalms while they were enjoying the evening concerts, so we decided to ask the least experienced visitor (of the festival and Latvian musical scene overall) and a more experienced vocalist about how it went this year.

Jāzeps Mediņš Rīga Music school last grade student Madara Dzene told: «This is my first year of taking part in the Voicingers» festival. I play music with my friends on a daily basis, although it isn’t that serious yet. I had no idea what to wait for at this festival, but my expectations are definitely overpowered — I’m happy to be among so many talented musicians from Latvia and abroad, and I think this is an amazing opportunity. We can see how other countries approach jazz because everyone has a very different jazz language. I was talking to the other participants about how we all study one thing and then have a completely different language — the fact that each of us can do something different really inspires me. Sometimes at the workshops, I get lost in thinking because the compositions instantly arise in my head, and I want to exercise more and more — I will definitely be using the knowledge I got at lessons and concerts».

A vocal teacher from Liepāja Marianna Matvejeva says: «Last year, I participated in this workshop festival for the first time: everything was new; there were moments when someone told me — now improvise, sing, — and I simply couldn’t, there was a wall in front of me, and then the teachers helped me make that step and break that wall. I think I succeeded, and now I see the ones who still have that wall, that luggage they have to let go of, the ones who are crying; everything comes along. When you get emotional, this is natural — we usually close up and don’t let ourselves show what we actually feel. One of the teachers made us breathe with the sound, made us show what’s inside us, share what we are now and accept us as we are. And everyone talks about what we are, and we have to get along with living with ourselves, respect ourselves and accept the emotions that we feel. A piece of advice to the ones who will attend «Voicingers On Tour” next year is to touch and taste some jazz if you haven’t done it before, and prepare a couple of jazz standards before the event».

A couple of comments about this year’s workshops and a couple of thoughts about making music were also shared by the author of the «Voicingers» idea and its artistic leader Grzegorz Karnas. In his comments, he compared the festival to the last year’s event in Latvia as well as talked about the local musicians he collaborated with this year:

I really liked that the concerts this year are taking place outside because people who accidentally come by are the precious ones that we have to connect with; although it might seem difficult with the kind of music we do, it’s a challenge. It’s a very busy place — party here, party there, but the thing is — I have spent a lot of time in Asia and noticed that people don’t get annoyed by other people making noise; they just learn to focus on what interests them, so other people and other noises don’t become a bother. That’s excellent quality, and this place reminds me of Asia — a party here with some groovy music, there’s music sipping through the windows of this building while concerts are taking place over there. I like it; it’s boisterous, bubbling.

I think that the festival attracted more people this year; good work by the team! The students are mostly new, and Santa and her team were able to attract more people, and maybe it will work even better next year. I see that this is growing in Latvia. Maybe next year we could try another place too, to see how it works in different locations.

We always change teachers; at least two-thirds are different. It’s a good idea not to let the students get accustomed to one way of thinking about music, singing, and improvising. Some people like each other, and some don’t. Some of the teachers connect to people in one way, some in another. This year we also have Latvian teachers; I’m very happy with Latvian musicians — piano players are amazing, proficient, funny, interesting people interesting musicians. That’s what we came here for — to dig for gold, and the gold is here. It really feels nice to see musicians that have never played before who can connect, and after one or two rehearsals, they make it on stage and enjoy themselves. This is something I discovered right from the start — people usually don’t like to play in pick-up bands; they think there’s not going to be enough time to prepare the details, things are gonna be lost, but they’re not! The energy is the important part you get in return — when it’s that fresh, it wakes you up, and imperfections become irrelevant. The happiness of doing it like you’re doing it for the first time — that’s a powerful thing. Some of the people here, the ones that pay attention, feel it.