The 3rd International Doctoral Summer School to be held at Jaunmoku Palace
Next week, from 17 to 21 August, Jaunmoku Palace will host the 3rd International Doctoral Summer School, jointly organised by the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA). Through lectures, workshops and individual mentoring sessions, doctoral students from 7 countries and 9 higher education institutions will engage with international lecturers. In the evenings, the summer school’s public cultural programme – featuring a concert, film screenings and accompanying discussions – will be open to anyone interested, free of charge, at Jaunmoku Palace.
The aim of the summer school is to support the professional development of doctoral students in the arts, to assist with the progress of their doctoral theses, and to foster international interdisciplinary collaboration, creativity and the exchange of ideas. This year, doctoral students from various European art universities were invited to apply for the summer school, thereby expanding the school’s participant base beyond the Baltic region for the first time. The summer school will be attended by students from both organising institutions, as well as from the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow (Poland), Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU, Slovakia), Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU, Czech Republic), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF (Germany), Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the Art Academy of Latvia.
The summer school’s lecturers and mentors are outstanding professionals from various fields of the arts: film producer and director Dr. Radim Procházka (Czech Republic), improviser, composer and percussionist Prof. Christian Windfeld (Denmark), theatre director, playwright and educator, associate professor Dr. Olga Lapina (Denmark/Lithuania), and clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, researcher and associate professor Dr. Agnė Jurgaitytė-Avižinienė (Lithuania). The curators of the summer school programme are the rector of the LAC, film director and professor Dr. Dāvis Sīmanis, and the Vice-Rector for Art and Science at the LMTA, theatre critic and researcher, associate professor Dr. Ramūnė Balevičiūtė, who will also act as mentors to the participants.
To encourage the exchange of experiences between summer school participants and teaching staff, as well as discussions on creative works and research, a cultural programme will be organised over three evenings, which is also open free of charge to anyone interested. All events are scheduled to take place in the Palace’s Stable Hall (Column Hall):
On Tuesday, August 18 at 19.00, there will be a screening of the documentary film “Score Diggers” (2026) by Andrejs Verhoustinskis, a lecturer and doctoral student at the LAC, with commentary by the director. The film follows two young internationally recognized Latvian contemporary composers, Anna Fišere and Platons Buravickis, who are also Andrejs’s fellow doctoral students. Anna, once a successful lawyer, has exchanged stability for solitude, seeking inspiration in nature and spending months crafting a single piece. Platons, who spent ten years working as a welder before turning fully to composition, embraces abstraction and technology to construct dynamic, high-energy urban soundscapes. Documentary filmmaker Andrejs Verhoustinskis, recognized for his intimate portrait films, spent two years observing and closely engaging with his protagonists, giving them participatory and performative tasks that let audiences enter the space of their creative process. In a world shaped by speed and pressure, their choices remain steady and demonstrate that finding inner freedom is still possible. The film is the author’s final creative project for his doctoral studies. The film is in Latvian with English subtitles.
On Wednesday, August 19 at 19.00, a concert “A Summer Evening Gathering” by the summer school participants will take place. Pianist Marcin Koziak will perform works by the 19th-century German composer and pianist Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, violinist Julia Błachuta together with M. Koziak will perform Franz Schubert’s Violin Sonata in A major, D. 574 (Grand Duo) (both are students from the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków). Elif Özen, a student at Istanbul Technical University, will perform a selection of works from the Turkish music repertoire, mostly composed in the 20th century, along with some anonymous pieces. The repertoire includes the Hüseyni, Rast, and Nihavend makams, with both instrumental and vocal excerpts. The evening will offer an insight into both the students’ research and the representation of culture. The audience can also look forward to accompanying commentary, which will provide further insight into the music being performed.
On Thursday, August 20 at 19.00, there will be a screening of the feature-length film “The Year Before the War” (2021, 95 mins), with commentary by the film’s director, Dāvis Sīmanis, and co-producer, Radim Proházka. At the heart of this historical thriller is a young man, Pēteris Mālderis, one of the most enigmatic Latvians of the 20th century. The film’s narrative explores his tragicomic and surreal journey in 1913, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War – a time that transformed the world. The film is an interpretation of European history that tells of the demise of an old culture. In conversation with the audience, the filmmakers will reflect on the film’s topical relevance today and the methods used in its production. The film will be screened in its original languages (Latvian, Russian, German) with English subtitles.
The International Doctoral Summer School is organised by the Latvian Academy of Culture and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, in collaboration with Jaunmoku Palace. The summer school is organised as an Erasmus+ BIP (Blended Intensive Programme) project and is co-funded by the Latvian Academy of Culture, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the State Culture Capital Foundation, the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and the Social Fund.
Foto: Tukuma Ziņas
