Petro Kachanov (Ukraine)
Director General and Artistic Director of the Kyiv Opera, Honoured Worker of Culture of Ukraine, and producer. Since 2018, he has led one of Ukraine’s leading musical theatre institutions, driving its artistic development and expanding international collaboration.
During the war, he has been a strong advocate for preserving Ukrainian culture and national identity, highlighting the vital role of theatre in fostering social cohesion and cultural resilience. Under his leadership, Kyiv Opera has continued its creative activities, expanded its Ukrainian repertoire, and represented Ukrainian culture on the international stage.
Lolita Ritmans (USA)
Emmy® Award-winning, Grammy® Award-winning composer and music producer
Internationally acclaimed Latvian-American composer whose music has been featured in Hollywood films, television series, and concert halls around the world. In 2021, her score for the feature film Blizzard of Souls was shortlisted for the Academy Award® (Oscar®) for Best Original Score.
Lolita Ritmanis is an Emmy® Award-winning composer, a Grammy® Award winner, and a faculty member in the Screen Scoring Program at the University of Southern California (USC), where she teaches film music composition.
Stacco Troncoso (Spain)
Researcher, writer, educator, and multidisciplinary thinker dedicated to fostering people-centred change in today’s world. He is the co-founder of DisCO.coop (2018) and the Guerrilla Media Collective (2013).
Stacco researches, teaches, and writes about commons governance, peer-to-peer (P2P) politics and economics, open culture, post-growth societal models, platform and open cooperativism, decentralised governance, blockchain technologies, and related topics. He develops and promotes these ideas through his work with DisCO.coop, Commons Transition, and Guerrilla Translation.
Alongside his research and international collaborations, Stacco places great importance on music, art, and poetry, viewing them as essential to social development, creativity, and community building.
Dace Resele (Latvia)
Dace Resele is an expert in international cooperation and cultural project development with many years of experience in building international partnerships, developing and implementing European Union funds, as well as coordinating international cooperation. She headed the Secretariat of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) for more than six years, and starting September 2026, she will take office as the Secretary General of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO.
In Dace’s professional activities, special attention is paid to promoting cross-sectoral cooperation, especially in the fields of culture and health.
Anastasija Konkina (Latvia)
Anastasija Konkina is a Creative Europe Desk Culture Strand coordinator in Latvia. Since 2022, she has been consulting potential project applicants – cultural and creative sector professionals – about Creative Europe funding opportunities, promoting the Programme through informative events and sessions.
Anastasija holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Industries (Latvian Academy of Culture / Riga Technical University), a master’s degree in Cultural and Arts Management (Latvian Academy of Culture), and has been engaged in project work in cultural, youth, and audiovisual fields while studying and working in the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
