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Where no biography is given, follow the link from the composer's name.
PRESS ARTICLES on Baltic composers
Born in the village of Miliunai in 1937, educated at Vilnius Pedagogical
Institute and the Kiev Conservatory (where he studied under Lyatoshinksky).
Graduated in 1969 and got a job with the Lithuanian Composers Union, later
gaining a staff post with the Lithuanian Musical Acadamy, taking the post
of Head of Composition there 1990 -1992. Was active in politics during the
breakup of the Soviet Union and served as Ambassador to France, Spain and
Portugal. Currently to be found teaching composition again at the National
Music Acadamy.
His music is influenced by Webern - in Kiev he belonged to a group of composers
that included Silvestrov, becoming a practitioner of ten, eleven and twelve
note rows, with strict serialism - while also trying to work out new
possibilities of composing diatonically. His music is characterised
by the quest (very Baltic) for a new relationship between intonation and
rhythm, and by strict logic. His work has been compared to Stravinskian
neo-classicalism, but his temperamental nature keeps it apart - he derives
much from jazz. Works: two symphonies, Opera Strumentale for
orchestra and The Mountain Sonata for Piano and Orchestra, Passio
Strumentalis for quartet and orchestra, as well as Spengla Ula
for four string quartets, as well as a range of chamber works.
Played a prominent role in shaping Estonian music - Tubin, Part and Tuur studied under him - in this he is comparable to Parry in British musical circles. He was born in Tartu in the South East of Estonia - then a small town of 20,000, but managed to host the first choral festival in the Baltic republics. He went to St Petersburg to study, first Law, then music at the conservatory (violin and composition) studying under Kalafati, who taught Stravinsky and Prokofiev. His early works shared the criticism common to 'new' works - dismissed as noise. After serving in the first World War he went back to St Petersburg to study under Steinberg (teacher of Shostakovich at the time of the first symphony) settled down to teach composition from 1920, until just before his death at the age of 83 - first in Tartu, then after 1940 in Tallin.. He is largely responsible for the 'economical' nature of Estonian music. Works: three symphonies, several tone poens ' Episood revolutsiooniajast,' Videvik (twilight)' and 'Koit (dawn)', 'Five pieces for String Orchestra', 'Elegia', for harp and Strings, five string quartets, a Violin COncerto (State prize 1965, also won for his third symphony), as well as many other orchestral pieces and nearly 200 pieces for piano. He has been compared with both Skryabin and Grieg, as well as Elgar.
Graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatory in 1969, working as a sound engineer for the state radio station, while developing a career as a freelance composer. In 1978 he won the State Prize for his symphony 'Rex'. His influences are many: aleatory elemants from Polish music, Neo Romanticism, and like many Baltic composers, the folklore of the region. He was the first Lithuanian composer to write for electronic instruments, but the vast body of his work is for conventional orchestras and ensembles.
Graduated from the conservatory in Vilnius in 1964, teaching composition and theory at the Ciurlionis Art School there and eventually gaining the post of Profesor of Composition at the Vilnius Academy. A true nationalist, he formed the vanguard of cultural resistance under the Soviets- positively rejecting Soviet Realism, while being effectively isolated from prevalent currents in Western music. Hence he has managed to evolve independently - using folk music as a source, and deriving minimalist and repetition from them - not picking it up from American music. His search for new instruments has been compared to Cage, but evolved totally separately, from his study of folkmusic - perhaps influenced more by Japanese (cf Hovhaness) than Western culture. Much of his work is paganistic, eg Pantheistic Oratorio, The Last Rite of the Pagans, other works include a cycle on religious themes - using ritual magic chants together with biblical themes.
One of the most notable female composers in Lithuania, she studied with Kutavicius at the Ciurlionis School and at the Conservatory, graduating in 1979. Lectured in theory at the Lithuanian Music Academy until 1982, now working as a freelence composer. Works include 'Opus Lugubre', 'Kulturos barai'. Her works display an inner pschology, tempered by her innate vitality and her poetry and drawing. Minimalism mixes with a dense polyphony inspired by serene landscapes.
Dissertation on
Part works.
Discography (ECM records only)
Born in Tallin, he was 17 at the time of Stalin's Anschluss - flying like Tubin to Sweden in 1944 when the Russians returned. He studied philospohy and theology at Stockholm university. Emigrated to America and took a degree in divinity in 1951 - is now a Baptist minister in Canada. Studied medieval music - but his output is very varied, dodecaphonic, polyrhythmic. See also this link
Born in 1928, studied music and law in Vilnius. In 1959 he graduated in composition from the Lithuanian Conservatory, working as a music teacher, now a freelance composer. Something of an iconoclast, he was the first composer to write aleatory music in Lithuania, and is well known for his grotesque stunts - switching off the lights for the finale of his fifth symphony, or making the singers show gold teeth to the audience in one concert. Works: nine symphonies, seven ballets, two collages for orchestra, several concertos, five string quartets, as well as other chamber works. It would be fair to say he is the most controversial composer on the Lithuanian Scene at the moment, his fondness for clowning sometimes overshadowing the serious nature of his work. His oeuvre is continuous, many works are simply continuations of their predecessors.
another link to Tormis biographical and opus information
Born in 1908 in Kallaste in Estonia. Studied at the Tartu college of Music and was a pupil of Eller. Fled to Stockholm in 1944 where he died in 1982. Works: ten symphonies, several orchestral works, concertos - the first Estonian Ballet - Kratt, two operas as well as a body of chamber music. His work incorporates many local folklore themes and tunes - wrote 'Three Estonian Dances' on returning from Budapest where he became acquainted with Kodaly and Bartok.
Useful collection of articles about Tuur, some in English
Born in Kaunas, he graduated from the conservatory in 1975, and is currently employed at the Lithuanian Music Academy, and is chairman of the composers union. He is something of a Lithuanian Phillip Glass, even dedicating works to the American minimalist composer. He dervived his repetitive elements from Lithuanian folklore - but his music is more of an urban refletcion on rural life than a representation of it. His ouotput is small - Inventio for five or seven oboes, a string quartet: 'Love Song and Parting' for voice and phonograph, 'Bach Variations' for four violins 'Pages of an Album' dedicated to Glass, 'Lithuanian folk music' for strings.
