During the last few month I might have seemed distracted from my blog: though I can’t wait to tell you more about all the projects and travels I did recently.

The first seasons tour was in the Baltic countries. 

Here comes another article, about my last trip to Latvia, where I had the chance to play Ernest Chausson’s “Poeme” with the Rezekne Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Janis Stafeckis.

This was my second trip to Latvia in a few month only, and I really like this country very much! The concert was this time at the wonderful “GORS” Concert Hall in Rezekne, a hall which had been recently opened, disposing of incredible acoustics!

Janis and the musicians of the Rezekne Chamber Orchestra were so nice, we had time to rehearse and discuss everything. We could refine the smallest details together, which is more than luxury in this job: very often you only have a few minutes only to rehearse with orchestra before a concert, and sometimes you don’t have time to explore every single musical and emotional detail.

Thanks to the short video filmed the day of the concert, I can show you some of the preparation, the emotion, the excitement backstage… and the joy during the concert! It’s a first video I am sharing with you today, and I hope I can soon share more often short videos with you!

During the rehearsal…

Preconcert Selfie…

It’s time to get ready for the concert… last minutes backstage.

After the concert with the staff of the French Cultural Instutute of Latvia, the staff of the GORS Concert Hall in Rezekne and Janis

The next day I held a short Masterclass with the pupils of the superior class of the Academy of music. These young pupils prepare their diploma, so we could discuss important repertoire like Bach’s “Sonatas and Partitas” and Mozart’s Violin Concertos.

The entrance of the Music Academy of Riga

During the Masterclass with one of the pupils of the diploma class.

This time I also could spend some hours at the sea, at Jūrmala. It was still very cold, the baltic sea was still winter-cold. Isn’t it so much “Sturm und Drang”? You also could imagine the “Schimmelreiter” by Theodor Storm, riding through the storms of the north in dark nights along the sea…

After the emotion of a concert, there is always a moment in which you live still out of any notion of time: you gave so much of yourself, you so much got into the music you have been playing, that you need some time to get back to normal life.

The seagulls let themselves carry by the wind, the taste of freedom in my eyes…

The beautiful cathedral of Riga, under the first spring sun

Pareizticīgo Kristus dzimšanas Rīgas katedrāle, the Orthodox Church of Nativity of Jesus in Riga. It’s golden roofs sparkle under the blue sky

I’ve spent the last day in Riga under the sun. I will for sure come back there before fall for new projects… It’s really a country to discover and re-discover again and again! <3

Today I will tell you about Latvia.

I went there at the beginning of March for some concerts with my Piano-Violin Duo with Ugo Mahieux, in collaboration with the local French Institute.

Wonderful places, museums, salons… Duo concerts are a special, convivial experience. The complicity between Ugo and me spreads out easily through the concert hall, as, besides playing music, we like to talk and exchange with our audience. This feeling represents to me the same then romantic composers must have lived, such as Schumann or Schuber, who was so introverted that he played mostly only in front of some close friends.

Starting from today, I would like to share something very personal with you: I’m a kind of “Wanderer”, like Schubert’s or Caspar David Friedrich’s, the one you see only the shoulders.

That’s how it is supposed to be. As an interpret of the music I play, I try also to translate in my own words the way I see my world around. Pictures are a part of this, very often these are instant pictures, a worthless souvenir, besides the fact they are the only testimonies of a moment which touched or inspired me in a very particular way. I would like to share with you my travel diaries, pictures and short stories of the places I’ve been to, the way I see them through my own eyes.

Travelling is part of my life as a musician, and probably the most wonderful part of it: I can discover places, meet people all around the world, the way they “use to live” their days, and share my music with them. This is the most enriching thing I believe.