Thaw. The Chamber choir Sireen & the Riga Project Choir
In the concert “Thaw”, the women’s chamber choir Sireen (conductor Laura Štoma) and the Riga Project Choir (conductor Christopher Walsh Sinka), performing in Tallinn for the first time, will create a musical bridge between two neighbouring countries, where each song is like the first ray of spring sunshine melting the ice — gentle, warm, and alive.
At the end of March, when winter finally gives way to spring, Niguliste Museum will be filled with a special evening of choral music, as works by Estonian and Latvian composers, voices, and breaths merge on stage.
What makes the evening especially unique is its repertoire: the Estonian choir will perform music by Latvian composers, and the Latvian choir will sing works by Estonian composers. In this way, a kind of ritual is created on stage, where each choir entrusts itself to the language and music of the other country, searching for a shared breath.
The concert “Thaw” is at once a musical sign of winter’s end and spring’s beginning, of melting ice and budding friendship: a meeting of two choirs whose voices warm the listener’s heart as surely as the first rays of sunshine on a city street.
Kammernaiskoor Sireen was founded in November 2011 by a group of friends who had been singing together for many years. Sireen strives for a delicate yet richly feminine and enchanting sound, combining the bright tonal colour characteristic of women’s choirs with the clarity of chamber-style vocal expression. It is an amateur choir made up of highly accomplished singers from the world of amateur music, who bring to it all their passion, experience, and deep musicality. Kammernaiskoor Sireen has released two albums — Terra Incognita (2016) and Terra Feminarum (2023); in addition, the voices of Sireen can be heard on composer Rasmus Puur’s album Thoughts of a Young Woman (2017). Sireen has successfully taken part in choral festivals in Estonia and abroad: the Estonian Chamber Choirs’ Festival (2016 – 1st prize; 2018, 2022 – 3rd prize), the Tallinn International Choir Festival (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 – 2nd prize; 2025 – 1st prize), and the EBU International Choral Competition “Let the Peoples Sing” (2019 – 1st prize). Since 2022, Sireen’s artistic director and conductor has been the Latvian conductor Laura Štoma.
The Riga Project Choir consists of 60 highly experienced singers, many of whom have previously sung in several of Latvia’s distinguished amateur and professional choirs. The choir’s mission is to introduce both singers and audiences to new and lesser-known choral repertoire. Since its founding in 2018, the Riga Project Choir has given world premieres of works by eight composers and Latvian premieres of dozens of significant choral compositions, including Kile Smith’s The Arc in the Sky and Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. From 2020 to 2022, the Riga Project Choir served as choir-in-residence at the National Library of Latvia; it is currently choir-in-residence at the Jāzeps Mediņš Riga Music Secondary School. In 2024, the choir released its first album, Jau izplaukuši, featuring new works by six Latvian female composers. The choir’s founder and artistic director is conductor Christopher Walsh Sinka.
