Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, italic=no, is the principal symphony orchestra of Latvia. It was founded in 1926 as the Latvian Radio Centre Orchestra by the conductor Arvīds Pārups, and was the first permanent orchestra in the country.
LNSO's mission is to offer the Latvian public musical performances of the whole orchestral repertoire from the classics to contemporary compositions and to introduce audiences abroad with Latvian music. One of the LNSO's most important priorities is to attract young listeners with educational programmes.
The LNSO is a six-time winner of the .
Since 2013 the music director of the LNSO is Andris Poga. Beginning with the 2021/2022 season Poga will take up the position of chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.
The LNSO’s past guest conductors include Latvians Arvīds Jansons, Mariss Jansons and Andris Nelsons, as well as Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kirill Kondrashin, Kurt Masur, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Simonov, and many others.
In recent years the LNSO has performed at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Grand Théâtre of Aix-en-Provence among many other European concert halls. The orchestra has participated in music festivals in France, Germany and Switzerland as well as the Bratislava Music Festival. On its most recent tours the LNSO teamed up with world-renowned soloists such as Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Alexander Knyazev, pianists Nicholas Angelich, Boris Berezovsky, Lukas Geniušas and Lucas Debargue.
In addition to regular symphonic concerts, the orchestra also broadcasts and records. Its primary performance venue is the Great Guild Hall in Riga.Music Directors and Chief Conductors
