Conductors
Jurģis Cābulis
Jurģis Cābulis (1992) is the artistic director and chief conductor of the youth choir Kamēr..., the artistic director of the Riga Cathedral Choir School Mixed Choir, as well as the head of the conducting department, and the conductor of the Riga Chamber Choir Ave Sol. He has received his bachelor's and master's degrees in choral conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music under Andris Veismanis and Kaspars Ādamsons. In 2017, he was awarded the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music Annual Award for Young Musician. Jurģis Cābulis has been recipient of high-standing awards in the 5th Jāzeps Vītols international Choral Conductors Competition (2014); Towards Polyphonycompetition (2014); Juozas Naujalis International Competition for Choral Conductors (2017) and was a semi-finalist for the prestigious Eric Ericsson Award (2021). In 2019, he recorded the choral music album AETERNUM by the composer J. Jančevskis with the Riga Cathedral Choir School Mixed Choir, under the distinguished British classical music recording company Hyperion Records. In 2021, Jurģis Cābulis won the most acclaimed Latvian academic music award – the Latvian Grand Music Award – for the best concert of the year, AMAO OMI.
Patriks Kārlis Stepe
Patriks Kārlis Stepe (1998) has graduated from Riga Dome Choir School, where he studied choral conducting with Mārtiņš Klišāns and voice with Valda Tračuma. Currently he continues his education in choral conducting at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music with Andris Veismanis. Patriks is a prizewinner of the Imants Kokars International Conducting Contest. Since 2017 he is also the artistic director of Old St. Gertrude's church mixed choir. He has been actively participating in the choral projects of European Choir Academy. Between 2013 and 2018, he was the second conductor of choir DeCoro, and took the position of the second conductor of Kamēr... in September 2018.
Vocal coaches
Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa
Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa graduated with a Master's degree in Opera Singing from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music as a student of Professor Anita Garanča and Kristīne Gailīte, and polished her skills in masterclasses with various coaches and singers including Axel Everaert (The Netherlands), Asta Kriksciunaite (Lithuania), Liene Kinča and Andžella Goba (Latvia). In 2013, Jolanta was a finalist of the Alīda Vāne International Vocal Competition and participated in Nordopera intensive new singers programme.
Jolanta sang her first roles in the opera studio Figaro (Lolita in Jānis Kalniņš' Lolitas brīnumputns and Leonora in Hindemith's The Long Christmas Dinner) and at the festival Dominante (Mary in Repighi's Maria egiziaca). Other vocal parts have included Saulcerīte (Zelta zirgs), Maria (West Side Story), Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne), Cosette (Les Misérables), and soprano solos in Orff's Catulli Carmina, Tavener's Ikon of Eros, Imants Kalniņš' Poet and mermaid and Bernstein's Mass. Her recent roles at the Latvian National Opera and Ballet have inlcuded Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro and Adele in Die Fledermaus.
Ansis Sauka
Ansis Sauka studied piano at the Jāzeps Mediņš Music school and continued studies of voice with Professor Guriy Antipov and composition with Professor Pauls Dambis at the Latvian Academy of Music. He was a member of the State Choir Latvija from 1985 to 1987 and a soloist at the Latvian National Opera from 1995 to 1998. Sauka has also performed chamber music with pianist Valdis Jancis and other singers, including works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Brahms. Has recital work has included admirable programs of Latvian chamber music, and he has toured Germany, France and the Netherlands. Sauka has worked as a vocal coach in the State Choir Latvija and Youth Choir Kamēr... since 1994, and he has taught obligatory singing at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music since 2006.
Administration
Andrejs Stupins-Jēgers
Managing director
Maija Beatrise Punka
Project manager