Mädchenchor «Tiara» an der Kathedrale Riga, Latvia
Founded in 1997 for the girls of Riga Cathedral Choir School, TIARA has long since won its audiences’ hearts as well as proving its worth as a creative laboratory for composers. Its exacting educational programme entails not just choral singing but also instrument lessons, vocal coaching and instruction in music theory, as well as master classes and workshops in dance, impro and stage etiquette. TIARA’s wide-ranging repertoire spans the 13th–21st century and includes folksong and contemporary pieces alongside the classical canon. Its singers have also provided the chorus for music dramas as diverse as Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Imant Raminsh’s opera The Nightingale. A regular guest at major cultural events in Latvia, TIARA also takes part in festivals and competitions all over Europe and was part of the line-up for the Women Warriors: Voices of Change album that won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium.