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Imants Kalniņš
Imants Kalniņš (born 26 May 1941) is a Latvian composer, musician and politician. Having studied classical and choral music, he has written seven symphonies, several operas (including the first rock opera in the USSR, ), oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs. In 2021, Kalniņš received the Grand Music Award for lifetime achievement. Furthermore, he served as a member of the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th sitting of the Saeima, the parliament of Latvia, from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1998 through 2010, representing the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK party. Life and career Kalniņš was born 26 May 1941 in Riga, Latvian SSR. During the 1960s, Kalniņš led the Liepāja rock band 2xBBM, which was extremely loved because of its heartfelt songs and hippy-like lifestyle. Kalniņš became the symbol of the spirituality, rebellion and worldview of the generation, and it was emphasized by the fact t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riga
Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planning Region, Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 847,162 (as of 2025). The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava (river), Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201, and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 Riga summit, 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship, and the 2006 IIHF Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Theater
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the light opera works of Jacques Offenbach in France, Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and the works of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by Edwardian musica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singing Revolution
The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the 10–11 June 1988 spontaneous mass evening singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Background During World War II, the three Baltic countries were invaded and occupied by the Stalinist Soviet Union in June 1940, and formally annexed into the USSR in August 1940. Following the Nazi German occupation in 1941–1944/45, the three countries were reconquered by the Soviet army in 1944–1945. In 1985, the last leader of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced ''glasnost'' ("openness") and ''perestroika'' ("restructuring"), hoping to stimulate the failing Soviet economy and encourage productivity, particularly in the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock And Roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African American music such as jazz, rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, electric blues, gospel music, gospel, and jump blues, as well as from country music. While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s,Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity' (1999), p. 9, . the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to the journalist Greg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the United States in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, rock and roll had developed into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music, though the latter also continued to be known in many circles as rock and roll".Kot, Greg"Rock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pērkons (band)
Pērkons () is a Latvian rock music, rock band formed in 1981. The band consisted of Juris Kulakovs (Keyboard instrument, keyboard, Composition (music), compositions), Juris Sējāns (bass guitar, bass, singing, vocals), Leons Sējāns (lead guitar), Ieva Akurātere (vocals), Raimonds Bartaševics (vocals), and Ikars Ruņģis (drums). Pērkons often played both instrumental European classical music, classical music and rock'n'roll or hard rock; but, they were better known for playing the latter. In 1983, the band was banned by the Government of the Soviet Union, Soviet government. However, they renamed and continued to play as the Ensemble of the Soviet Latvia Kolkhoz, Collective Farm. In 1985, after a concert in Ogre, Latvia, Ogre, a group of teenagers demolished two train compartments, resulting in the group being banned again, despite the band not being involved. The incident was documented by Juris Podnieks in the film ''Is It Easy to Be Young?'' In 1987, they played at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juris Sējāns
The Juris (also ''Juri'', ''Yuri'') were a tribe of South American Indigenous people, formerly occupying the country between the rivers Içá (lower Putumayo) and Yapura, north-western Brazil. In ancient days they were the most powerful tribe of the district, but in 1820 their numbers did not exceed 2000. Owing to inter-marrying, the Juris are believed to have been extinct for half a century. They were closely related to the Passes, and were like them a fair-skinned, finely built people with quite European features. Language Data on the Yuri language (Jurí) was collected on two occasions in the 19th century, in 1853 and 1867. The american linguist Terrence Kaufman notes that there is good lexical evidence to support a link with Ticuna in a Ticuna–Yurí language family (1994:62, after Nimuendajú 1977:62), though the data has never been explicitly compared (Hammarström 2010). Relation to Carabayo It is commonly assumed that the Juri people and their language has sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Broadcasting Of Latvia
Public Service Media of Latvia ( – LSM) is a publicly funded radio and television organization operated by both of Latvia's public broadcasters – Latvijas Televīzija, Latvian Television and Latvijas Radio, Radio Latvia. LSM provides news, analysis, culture, entertainment and new experimental content, produced mainly by Latvijas Televīzija, Latvian Television and Latvijas Radio, Radio Latvia, and by the portal’s editorial personnel. The site was launched on 3 February 2013. LSM content is also available in Latgalian language, Latgalian, Russian language, Russian, English language, English, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, Belarusian language, Belarusian and Polish language, Polish. News content in English was made available from 1 July 2014. A unified news portal was one of the steps planned in a much wider convergence of both public broadcasters. In 2012, Latvia’s National Electronic Media Council (NEMC or ''NEPLP'') approved the concept of creating a new Latvian public ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to different countries around the world. The word ''Etymology of hippie, hippie'' came from ''Hipster (1940s subculture), hipster'' and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City's Greenwich Village, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago's Old Town, Chicago, Old Town community. The term ''hippie'' was used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularize use of the term in the media, although the tag was seen elsewhere earlier. The origins of the terms ''Hip (slang), hip'' and ''hep'' are uncertain. By the 1940s, both had become part of African-American culture, African American Glossary of jive talk, jive slang and meant "sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date". The Beats adopted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liepāja
Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-free port. In the 19th and early 20th century, it was a favourite place for sea-bathers and travellers, with the town boasting a fine park, many pretty gardens and a theatre. Liepāja is however known throughout Latvia as the "City where the wind is born", likely because of the constant sea breeze. A song of the same name () was composed by Imants Kalniņš and has become the anthem of the city. Its reputation as the windiest city in Latvia was strengthened with the construction of the largest wind farm in the nation (33 Enercon wind turbines) nearby. Liepāja is chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2027. Names and toponymy The name is derived from the Livonian language, Livonian word ''Liiv,'' which means "sand" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation and annexation of Latvia began between June and August 1939, according to the agreed terms of the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In 1939, Latvia was forced to give military bases on its soil to the Soviet Union, and in 1940 the Red Army moved into Latvia, effectively annexing it into the Soviet Union. The territory changed sides during World War II, with Nazi Germany occupying a large portion of Latvian territory from 1941 until the Red Army entered Latvia in 1944 with the final territory occupied by the Germans liberated in 1945. The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states from 1939 to 1940 and then from 1944 to 1991 was widely considered illegal by the international community and human rights organizations. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
For Fatherland And Freedom/LNNK
For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (, abbreviated to TB/LNNK) was a free-market, national conservative political party in Latvia. In 2011, it dissolved and merged into the National Alliance (Latvia), National Alliance. The party was founded from smaller groups in 1993 as For Fatherland and Freedom (TB), with a focus on promoting the Latvian language and putting a cap on Naturalization, naturalisation of Latvian Non-citizens (Latvia), non-citizens. It won six Saeima seats in 1993 Latvian parliamentary election, its first year, and 14 1995 Latvian parliamentary election, in 1995, when it entered the governing centre-right coalition. It merged with the moderate Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK) in 1997, and moved its emphasis to economic liberalisation. TB/LNNK's then-leader, Guntars Krasts, was Prime Minister of Latvia, Prime Minister from 1997 to 1998. It remained in government until 2004, and again from 2006. Initially from the nationalist right, the party become more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saeima
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in 2022 Latvian parliamentary election, October 2022. The President of Latvia can dismiss the Saeima and request early elections. The Parliamentary dissolution power of Latvian President, procedure for dismissing it involves substantial political risk to the president, including a risk of loss of office. On 28 May 2011 president Valdis Zatlers decided to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima, which was approved in a 2011 Latvian parliamentary dissolution referendum, referendum, and the Saeima was dissolved on 23 July 2011. The current Speaker of the Saeima is Daiga Mieriņa of the Union of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
