The winners of International Jazz Artist Contest Riga Jazz Stage 2018 are Kaisa Mäensivu (Finland) in a category of Jazz Bass and Kristina Kovalyova (Russia) in a category of Jazz Vocal!
The winners of “Riga Jazz Stage 2018” are as follows:
Category Jazz Bass
1st Place – Kaisa Mäensivu /Finland/
2nd Place – Jānis Rubiks /Latvia/
3rd Place – Michelangelo Scandroglio /Italy/
Category Jazz Vocal
1st Place – Kristina Kovalyova /Russia /
2nd Place – Camilla Barbillon /France/
3rd Place – Rūta Dūduma /Latvia/
The Special Prize of Maestro Raimonds Pauls was granted to Kristina Kovalyova for her original and unique performances.
1st place winner in the Jazz Bass category also received the guitar Fender Jazz Bass, sponsored by A&T Trade in cooperation with Fender.
1st place winners in both categories received € 1 500, while 2nd and 3rd - € 1000 and € 700.
The winners of the 1st place also received special prizes from Latvenergo.
TELE2 & Riga Jazz Stage webpages favorite this year was the contest finalist, Viktoria Anton (Ukraine), who has the most active voting audience.
The following contestants received invitations to perform at these jazz festivals and venues:
- Rigas Ritmi Festival, represented by Maris Briežkalns – Dagnis Roziņš, Kristina Kovalyova, Dominyka Mickute
- Jazz Time Festival, represented by Toivo Unt – Kristina Kovalyova
- Kaunas Jazz Festival, represented by Jonas Jučas – Laura Poldvere
- Nardis Jazz Club, represented by Onder Focan – Camilla Barbillon
- Ronnie Scott’s, represented by Paul Pace- Kristina Kovalyova, Kateryna Vasilyeva, Kaisa Mäensivu, Robert Nomman
- Beijing’s Nine Gates Jazz Festival, represented by Adam Yong Huang - Kaisa Mäensivu, Michelangelo Skandroglio, Marta Gulioni, Kateryna Vasilyeva, Kristina Kovalyova
- Venetto Jazz Festival, represented by Giuseppe Mormile – Kristina Kovalyova, Kaisa Mäensivu
65 applications from 22 countries were submitted to Riga Jazz Stage 2018 – 28 young bassists and vocalists were chosen as contestants and invited to perform at the Live Performances and the Contest Finale, at Splendid Palace, Riga.
Artist in Residence, Michael Pipoquinha performed a special project together with the Latvian Radio Big Band at the Gala Concert of Riga Jazz Stage 2018 presenting the programme Tribute to Jaco. Michael also hosted a workshop at the Splendid Palace cinema.
Throughout the contest, jazz lovers had the chance to attend contest jam sessions at the jazz club “Trompete”.
See more pictures and read more at www.rigajazz.lv
