Antanas Račiūnas (4 September 1905, Užliaušiai – 3 April 1984,

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 ...

) was a Lithuanian and Soviet composer and pedagogue. He was awarded

People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR (; ) was an honorary title awarded to citizens of the Lithuanian SSR in the Soviet Union. It was awarded for outstanding performance and exceptional merits in the sphere of the performing arts (theatre, music, ...

in 1965.

Biography

He graduated from the Kaunas People's Conservatory in 1933, where he was a student of

Juozas Gruodis Juozas Gruodis (20 December 1884 in Rokėnai, Russian Empire – 16 April 1948 in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union) was a Lithuanian classic, composer, educator and professor. Biography His father was a woodworker who also made musical inst ...

. In 1936, he published his opera ''Trys Talismanai''. It was one of only two works by Lithuanian composers in the original repertory of the

Kaunas State Musical Theatre The Kaunas State Musical Theatre, formerly Kaunas City Theatre, is a theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania. It is home to a musical theatre company of the same name, established on 27 November 1940 in the former State Theatre hall on the Laisvės Alėja. ...

. Between 1936 and 1939, he studied in Paris with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

, and

Charles Koechlin Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (; 27 November 186731 December 1950), commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his better known works is '' Les Heures persanes'', a set of piano pieces based on th ...

. He was a professor at both the Kaunas Conservatory and at the Vilnius Conservatory. His students included the composers

Bronius Kutavičius Bronius Kutavičius (13 September 1932 – 29 September 2021) was a Lithuanian composer and academic composition teacher. He wrote numerous oratorios and operas, often inspired by ancient Lithuanian polytheistic beliefs and music. He also compose ...

Vytautas Barkauskas Vytautas Barkauskas (25 March 1931 – 25 April 2020) was a Lithuanian composer and Professor of Composition of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Life and career Barkauskas was born in Kaunas. He studied music at the Vilnius Con ...

, Vytautas Klova, , and . Račiūnas' music, including 10 symphonies, was noted for incorporating folk music and adhering to principles of the

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

movement.

Works

Operas

* ''Trys talismanai'' (‘Three Talismans’, 1936) * ''Gintaro krantas'' (‘The Amber Shore’, 1940) * ''Marytė'' (1953) * ''Saulės miestas'' (‘City of the Sun’, 1965)

External links

Račiūnas' entry
in the

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

(in Russian)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Račiūnas, Antanas 1905 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Lithuanian male musicians Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Male opera composers Lithuanian composers Lithuanian male composers Lithuanian opera composers Soviet male composers Soviet opera composers