An interview with Uldis Lipskis, Director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Looking at the culture and arts sector and the people working within it, it could be said that you have been denied meetings with your audience for about a year now, if one excludes the relatively rich period of late summer and autumn – from August to October.
Yes, indeed, we will soon be able to celebrate the first anniversary of a bad year! Last year, at this very time, the Liepāja International Stars Festival was underway; we had played three magnificent concerts and were preparing for the fourth. At the third concert, President Egils Levits was in the audience; it was our orchestra's first meeting with him. During the social part after the concert, there was already talk that the situation was becoming more serious and that something would be done at the state level. But these conversations also mentioned that it would not affect halls meant for 200 people. We felt relieved, as we have just such a hall, tickets for the next concert had been sold, Maija Kovaļevska had travelled from Australia, Armands Ābols from Chile, both had already organised rehearsals – we hoped everything would go ahead! Not at all! Stop! Our festival was “sawn in half”.
In the first few weeks, the confusion was immense. It must be said that artists operate under different statuses: there are those employed by the state (in various ensembles), there are freelance artists, and there are sole traders. The situation can be different for everyone. Quoting the classics, in the “fatter years”, the busiest and most enterprising work hard and smirk at those “on the state payroll” and their lower pay and lack of initiative. Currently, the situation is quite the opposite – for artists in state employment, there is greater stability. Their remuneration has not suffered and there are opportunities to play (work). Last year, a few months in spring and early summer were perceived almost with delight – now there is free time, and everyone can do things they hadn't managed to finish due to being busy, tidy up the untidy, and so on. Athletes usually have training and then competitions; for us musicians, during the season, there are competitions and competitions, and even more competitions. When to recover as a professional, both in terms of nerves and other aspects? There is no time for that! Last spring, there was time! But as the “rest period” dragged on, other troubles began. As Inga Kalna accurately described it in a recent interview: “A performing artist's work is linked to the concentration of subtle chemistry in the blood, to which one must gradually get used to and maintain the level. Even top-class artists, having not performed in public for a year, will feel the consequences of such a lack of performance for several years. Communication with the audience is significant.”
In this situation, I can only be happy about the absolute loyalty of the Ministry of Culture team to the arts, because a great deal has been done to ensure we feel the blow as minimally as possible, or not at all. The outlook for 2021 is optimistic; we hope and truly wish to meet our audience again soon!
Has anyone from the orchestra colleagues changed jobs abruptly, or decided to head elsewhere?
Not at all! The situation mentioned in your question was observed during the previous economic crisis (2008–2009), when one or two musicians went to work in Germany in jobs unrelated to music, others even took their families, but thank God, they are all back and playing in the orchestra again. We do not lose professionals for such reasons; as I already mentioned, state-funded ensembles are now like a safe haven for artists.
Liepāja has places to perform, Liepāja is rich with “Lielais Dzintars” and more! It is acceptable that being in Riga during this time does not happen often, but some time has passed since cultural figures started talking, debating, and arguing about the Riga concert hall: the location, locations, opinions and so on. How is this seen from Liepāja?
The first thing I know is that it is excellent that a good and modern working environment has been created for the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra! And I personally feel sorry from the heart for my colleagues in Riga who have to work in morally and technically outdated premises.
Is the question of “where” the most important? I think many understand that “where”, or “how elegant and accessible”, is less important than business, political, and other interests, such as what benefit a specific person or people will gain from this process. In my opinion, the Minister of Culture is not in an easy position right now because the public rhetoric is about one thing, while the invisible levers being moved are quite another. That is not pleasant! There is something else that worries and saddens me. “That” appeared long before the construction of the National Library, namely: the long time spent in struggles! How much, how intensely, and in how many ways the public was irritated and stirred up: do we need it, do we not, when do we need it... Excuse me, in pre-war Latvia, many buildings and structures were built – symbols of the nation. Now we have a restored independent state and wide discussions are erupting about whether or not we need a library... Well, in the end, it was agreed upon, but the building's planned volume “shrank” by a third...
The New Riga Theatre building has an even more illustrious history of renovation, which Gundars Āboliņš described about a year ago, speaking about his student years (early 80s), when the building was already crying out for repairs.
The first project for the Liepāja concert hall was drafted exactly 100 years ago. But the National Library, an original work by an excellent architect, was “gnawed” by locals to be a third smaller. “Lielais Dzintars” was built 3 metres lower than originally planned. Is this a gene of pettiness? What to call it? Personally, I am saddened by the inability to agree: Let's do the best we can! No... It will be expensive, some “wrong” builder will earn too much... Better less... That is a terrible legacy, which I hope we will get rid of, but I see it in many of the attacks that happen instead of discussions. It is clearly visible how one architect or another is used, playing on a person's desire to be noticed, to be heard. Right now, there should be more concern about the ability to reach an agreement at all: “Yes, let’s build it!” The location is a secondary question. Certainly not unimportant, but secondary to the ability to shake hands: “Let’s do it!” Discussion and debate cannot turn into brakes!
I would like to add regarding the “old” concert hall project on the AB Dam: the idea in this plan was brilliant – to show the place that music and culture hold in the panorama of our capital! From this perspective, the AB Dam was an excellent choice.
Perhaps it is not the best comparison, but... I have only been to Moscow once, and I visited the Kremlin complex. There is the Kremlin Concert Hall, there is the large exhibition hall, the museum. There, in the whole hierarchy, culture is highly valued, right alongside power. With us... alongside the support staff. I think the fate of various cultural buildings and the preservation of values are rooted in the view that many things are unnecessary luxury... Would culture still be considered an “alien pastime” and are we content with a beer and a bonfire? I think not!
The Song and Dance Festival and the theatre are significant and sacred things!
Of course, I do not want to be overly harsh, but there is a certain nihilism towards excellence here. That does not do the nation any good.
“We are great! We are mighty!”
It is always good to be aware of the strength of spirit, but at the moment, there are problems with self-esteem in Latvia. It is distorted!
Before the conversation, you said: “If I weren't a musician, I would definitely be a forester.” It sounded quite convincing!
From childhood, the forest was and still is a place where I find solace and regain my strength after music training. In childhood, that was usually after long hours of practising scales. The forest, the river, a bonfire. I had an excellent teacher – Gunārs Kļaviņš, under whose guidance we started kayaking during our school years; we travelled down all of Latvia's major rivers. The forest is sacred to me; the Latvian landscape is an excellent source of energy.
On the Liepāja side, forests are a bit scarcer; I live in the Durbe region, where there are plains and small groves, small clusters of trees. I have a good friend who lives in Mordanga near Talsi – the great giant pine forests... That is something!
Durbe region will soon be part of the South Kurzeme region. Does the administrative reform affect the residents of Durbe who work at “Lielais Dzintars” in any way?
I haven't thought about this too much; my thoughts are more tied to work. But I understand that the main worries and concerns are about the possibility that the further away you are from the centre, the less attention and investment there will be. How this will be regulated, how it will be resolved, is very difficult to say and predict at the moment! Right now, in Durbe, which is the centre of the region, they don't know what will happen in the town in the future: what will be preserved, what will change, what will be lacking... The centre of the large region will be Grobiņa. But... Undoubtedly, a lot will depend on the relationships between the management (representatives) of the large region and the small centres or parishes: how they will work together, how they will agree, how they will get along, how they will divide things and share them. We have an example in Latvia that we should not follow – Riga and the Riga region...
What is happening in the Durbe region right now?
Durbe is a small town. There are very strong and capable farmers in the region; I see how farms are developing, which can be described in Latvian simply and briefly – growth! There are many well-tended fields, well-cared-for places and farms.
I would call the upcoming South Kurzeme region a very legendary one! We in the orchestra are also “preparing” for it, because if the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra once prepared for longer concert tours in Latvia – for example, to Alūksne, Viļaka, Balvi – to some extent ignoring the immediate surroundings, thinking that nearby people would come to Liepāja. Not at all! Not everyone can come, not everyone will be motivated, but... The new region will include Aizpute and Priekule – old cultural centres, the port town of Pāvilosta, ethnographic regions – Rucava, Nīca, Bārta... I see it as a powerful, unified cultural region. I think that in the coming years, local tourism should be encouraged because it happens that you have been to a resort far from Latvia, but you have not been to a neighbouring town. That should be changed! The new region has wonderful opportunities and a large perimeter – it must be able to cooperate and coexist!
Speaking about concert halls again, it is often mentioned: does Latvia need so many of them, will there be (are there) enough people going there...
“Lielais Dzintars” has several halls. Of course, we take into account the population in the region; it is clear that, for example, the Ventspils concert hall has about 500 seats because the number of inhabitants around the town is not large; Ventspils is surrounded by forests. At one time, in a conversation, the Ventspils district was called the Siberia of Latvia in terms of population density.
Our orchestra's operations have changed. We used to perform in the hall of the Liepāja Latvian Society House on Graudu Street, which has about 250–300 seats (depending on how the chairs are arranged); we could experiment more, be freer and more creative, because we didn't have to think about attracting a specific number of people. Moreover, before “Lielais Dzintars”, we didn't have much competition in our genre. Now: “this composer's works don't suit us because he is little known, this conductor is not strong and powerful enough, this repertoire won't work because...” We have to start thinking more commercially, which the creative process suffers from. If it can be said, our “risk share” has decreased. How do we regulate and balance that? Of course, we don't perform every week; we have recordings, touring, we perform in Liepāja once or twice a month. If we look at the offering of “Lielais Dzintars”: we prepare programmes, there are events from private producers, there are events from “Latvijas Koncerti”; the offering is at the level of a large European city, and undoubtedly, the residents both in the city and in the nearby regions are the only winners. Speaking of the hall and private producers, 1,000 spectators is the threshold where the event's budget is in balance. I think everything is correct and understandable with concert halls in Latvia.
What should we be worried about... About children, about the number of children in a family, about the people who stay and live in Latvia. I would like for people to want to live in Liepāja because we have everything, including the sea! The problem is that there are few people; that is what we should think about! In terms of housing stock, Liepāja is intended for 110,000–120,000 people. That was approximately the population at the end of the Soviet era. Currently, almost half of the apartments are empty; they are being bought up by foreigners. Liepāja is beautiful, but... like a bright sock that is nevertheless too big. Time to start growing!