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On 3-4 June Riga will host the 7th Baltic Sea State Heads of Government Summit, which will gather together in one place the prime ministers of 11 states - Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Russia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Finland, Germany and Sweden, as well as representatives of the European Commission, to consider the future of the region and to come to an agreement on the reform of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) organisation. This will bring to a close Latvia's presidency of the CBSS, lasting from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008. The presidency will now be taken over from Latvia by Denmark.
On 3 June, the Summit will be launched with an official welcome ceremony, when Ivars Godmanis, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, will greet the heads of government of the CBSS member states at the Latvian National Opera, where they will attend a jazz concert of the travelling project Balticness.
Photo and video journalists, who have been accredited to the Summit, will have the opportunity to immortalise the greeting ceremony with the heads of government of CBSS member states. Journalists are requested to gather in the Beletazas zale (Mezzanine Hall) of the Latvian National Opera from 5.00 to 5.30 pm on 3 June. The entrance is from the Raina bulvaris side, across the canal bridge.
The concert will feature original compositions as well as jazz arrangements of folk songs and melodies of Baltic Sea states, including the Latvian folk song Put vejini (Blow, Wind). The concert will be visually complemented with a video performance on Baltic Sea themes.
The performers at the concert will be Riga Groove electro (Deniss Paskevics, Madars Kalnins, Norberts Skraucis, Kaspars Grigalis, Neff Irizarry, DJ Monsta, Konstantins Smirnovs) and guest artists from countries of the Baltic Sea Region: Villu Veski and Sofija Rubina from Estonia, Karl Martin Almquist and Ulf Adaker from Sweden, Jukka Eskola from Finland, Erling Wicklund from Norway, Seth Sharp from Iceland, Gianni Bardaro from Denmark, Jan Freicher from Poland, Sebastian Studnitzky from Germany, Liudas Mockunas from Lithuania and Jolanta Gulbe from Latvia.
The travelling project Balticness is one of the most large-scale projects undertaken during Latvia's presidency of the CBSS, consisting of jazz concerts, a photographic exhibition and round table discussion seminars. The jazz concerts which took place under its auspices are unique in the sense that the Latvian musicians visited all the larger cities of the CBSS – Tallinn, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Berlin, Warsaw and Vilnius, at each venue performing together with local musicians from the relevant Baltic Sea State.
On 4 June the Balticness closing jazz concert will take place at the Latvian National Opera to a wider audience.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia in collaboration with Latvian embassies in CBSS countries, municipalities, the CBSS Secretariat in Stockholm, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the musicians association Ze Pirats, the Baltic Development Forum. Promotional support has been given by radio SWH.
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