Juozas Domarkas (born 28 July 1936) is a Lithuanian musician, music teacher and conductor, and a professor at the

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a state-supported College or university school of music, conservatory that trains students in music, theatre, and multimedia arts. History Composer Juozas Naujalis founded a ...

(LMTA).

Life

Domarkas was born in Varkaliai, Nausodis eldership,

Plungė District Municipality Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė''; ) is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plunge is the capital of the Plungė District Municipality which has 33,251 inhabitants (2022). Two parts of the city are separated by the Babrungas River and ...

. From 1955 to 1960 he studied the clarinet at the Lithuanian Conservatory (forerunner of the present LMTA) and in 1965 he studied conducting at the

Leningrad Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members ...

with Ilya Musin. In 1963 he trained in Moscow with

Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', , ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian composer and conductor who studied and worked in Paris and became a naturalized Italian and French citi ...

. From 1964 Domarkas was artistic director and principal conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. From 1968 he has taught at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre where since 1995 he has also held the professorship of conducting in the music faculty. From 1972 to 1991 he also directed the student symphony orchestra of the music high school.

Distinctions

;Prizes * 1974: State Prize of Soviet Lithuania * 1998: Art Prize of the Lithuanian Government * 2000:

Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts The Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts (), established in 1989, is an award granted for achievements in culture and the arts. It has been awarded annually in six categories since 2006 (between 1989 and 2006 there were nine categories). ...

;Orders * 1994:

Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this O ...

, 4th Class * 1998: Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, 1st Class * 2006: Knight's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland () is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident abroad. As such, it is sometimes referred to as ...

Honours

* 2003: Citizen of Honour of the Plungė District Municipality

Sources

*Audronė Žigaitytė-Nekrošienė: ''Juozas Domarkas'' -

Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija The ''Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija'' or VLE () is a 25-volume universal Lithuanian-language encyclopedia published by the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute from 2001 to 2014. VLE is the first published universal encyclopedia i ...

, T. V (Dis-Fatva). – Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 2004, 62 psl. Lithuanian musicians Lithuanian conductors (music) 1936 births Living people People from Plungė District Municipality 21st-century conductors (music) {{Lithuania-musician-stub