SKANI is a division of the Latvian Music Information Center. Our main goal is to produce high quality recordings of Latvian classical music and to make them available to the listeners and audience worldwide.
The first Latvian professional composers worked at a time when Latvians were united by a desire for a national identity of their own and – several decades later – their own independent state. Composers translated this yearning into music and thus almost literally became “the voice of the people”.
This “voice of the people” was nurtured by the Song Festival movement, which has managed to survive from its beginnings in 1873 through the first years of independence and the years of Soviet occupation to the present day. Throughout its history it has served as a way of conveying the energy accumulated and cultivated by the people, and no political power or ideology has been able to weaken this form of self-expression. It is possibly this very singing together and making music together that stimulated the awakening of Latvian self-confidence and the idea of a Latvian state.
Today classical music has become a true ambassador of Latvian culture and values worldwide. Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, Elīna Garanča, Gidon Kremer, Aleksandrs Antoņenko and Egils Siliņš are the global icons of classical music, and their appearances are highly appreciated by both critics and audiences worldwide. Many will know the name of the composer Pēteris Vasks, but not much more about the music that comes from Latvia.
Bertus Groothandel en Distributie b.v.
Akeleibaan 59
2908 KA
Capelle a/d IJssel
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 10 26 41 500
Fax: +31 10 26 41 515
E-mail: info@bertus.com
Proper Music Distribution, Ltd.
1-5 Applegarth Drive
Questor, Dartford,
Kent, DA1 1JD
United Kingdom
Phone: 0208 970 7345
Web: www.propermusicgroup.com