The legendary Maestro, through a lawyer, demands to remove his name from the announcement of the festival in Latvia

Legendary Soviet and Latvian composer and pianist Raymond Pauls is actively trying to distance himself from the "Song Festival", which will be held in July this year in Mezapark (Riga), where it is allegedly planned to honor the Maestro in connection with his 90th birthday. The corresponding statement was handed over by his lawyer to the Latvian media on January 26.

The event was announced back in January last year under the title "Raymond Pauls'Song Holidays "Manai dzimtenei" (To My Homeland). More than 13 thousand choristers from all over the world are going to come to a large-scale festival where only Pauls' music will be played.

"Taking into account the hype raised around the so-called "Song Holidays" under my name, I reaffirm that I distance myself from these "holidays" and do not want to be associated with them. These will not be my holidays," the composer said in a statement to the media.

He indicated that he had never consented to the use of his name, surname, images and his trademarks in this project.

"All appropriate legal remedies will be used to ensure and protect the rights and legitimate interests of Raymond Pauls," the portal quotes Pauls' statement. jauns.lv .

Mixnews reminds that the year 2026 in Latvia has been declared the "anniversary year of composer Raymond Pauls". A large-scale song festival in his honor will be held on July 11, 2026.

However, Pauls expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the organization of the concert for many became an opportunity to make money on his behalf in an interview on the TV24 NedēļA program. Post scriptum back in December last year. He was also outraged by the fact that the organizers of the holiday demanded money from some rural collectives for participation. Then the Maestro even said that he wanted to ban the festival.

"I didn't agree that they organized it! They do it on their own! There are rural collectives there, and I wanted them to be able to come for free, so that they could find money for the road and so on. And now they are being charged some money for participation. Why is that? And who are they? They are not some great conductors or anyone else. In fact, this is no one, unfortunately. They are there to dispose of the money that is in their hands, and they are in charge of all this," Pauls was indignant.

In early January, when preparations for the festival began to reach the finish line, the composer warned that he required the removal of his name from all announcements of the holiday.

"The fact that the organizers have been using my name for a long time and on a large scale to increase awareness and advertising has created an erroneous impression among many about my active participation and involvement. My name is just stuck there very falsely. To resolve the situation in the legal field, I turned to a lawyer," the musician said.

Supporting the Maestro's position, a number of artists also refused to participate in the festival. In particular, the singer Intars Busulis announced his refusal, noting that the decision was easy for him, because in this way he expressed support for the Maestro, with whom, according to him, the organizers of the concert were "out of the way."

On January 23, the artistic director of the concert, Janis Kirsis, announced a change in the name of the festival.

"In conversations with the Maestro, this was the main argument and reason — he did not want his name to appear in the name of these holidays. Respecting this, we came to the name "Manai dzimtenei Song Festival". But at the same time it should be noted that the concept and artistic idea of the holiday do not change in essence. Everything remains the way it was originally intended," concluded Kirsis peacefully.

As EADaily reported, on January 12 of this year, the legendary Maestro celebrated his 90th birthday. At the same time, he said that he would not be able to play the piano at his anniversary concert because of the doctors' ban.

"Now I have categorically stated that I will not play because it is forbidden to me," he said.

According to the composer, the doctors directly forbade him to sit down at the piano. The musician did not name the reason for the ban, nor did he specify what consequences playing the piano might have for him.