Juozas Domarkas has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. In addition, he teaches at the conducting department of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre as a professor and department chair. Juozas Domarkas was born on July 28, 1936 in Varkaliai (Plunge district). He studied in J. Jasenka's clarinet class at the Lithuanian Conservatory from 1955 to 1960. In 1965, he completed I. Musin's conducting class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1963 in Moscow, he trained with French conductor I. Markevitch. In 1957, J. Domarkas became a conductor of the Vilnius Wind Orchestra (later called "Trimitas"). Since 1964, he has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. Since 1968, he has taught at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He was the leader of the student symphony orchestra from 1972 to 1991, and since 1995 has been the head of the conducting department. Between 1988 and 1991, and in 1995, he conducted the Baltic Academy (Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, and St. Petersburg) youth symphony orchestra. Since 1975, he has organized concerts for young Lithuanian performers with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, which grew into the "Atžalynas" festival. He is the founder and artistic director of this festival. J. Domarkas has created a distinctive sound quality and interpretation style for the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, allowing them to interpret the most complex symphonic music in all styles. The orchestra is known for their unique performance style, musical thinking, maturity, and tendency towards monumentality and sense of style. Their repertoire consists of classical, romantic, and modern music. J. Domarkas, with this orchestra, has participated in the Moscow Stars, Russian Winter, Warsaw Autumn, Prague Spring, St. Petersburg Contemporary Music, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals. He has performed in Germany, Spain, Great Britain, France, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and other countries. He has conducted orchestras in Russia, Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Venezuela, Turkey, Finland, and other countries. He was a jury member in the IV and V International Fitelberg Conductor Competitions in Katowice, Poland, in 1991 and 1995, and in the I and II International Prokofiev Conductor Competitions in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1993 and 1996. He was also a member of the jury at the 1999 International M.K. Čiurlionis Competition. J. Domarkas directed and conducted G. Bizet's opera Carmen (1985) and two one-act ballets: M. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and G. Bizet - R. Shchedrin's Carmen - Suite (1997) at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the Klaipeda Musical Theatre, he directed and conducted I. Stravinsky's opera King Oedipus (1997) and G. Bizet's Carmen (1998). He performed with famous world and Lithuanian soloists: singers - J. Obrazcova, S. Larin, V. Urmana, G. Apanaviciute, I. Milkeviciute, V. Noreika, V. Prudnikov; pianists - E. Gilels, D. Bashkirov, J. Ogdon, J. Frantz, P. Genius; violinists - L. Kogan, V. Spivakov, G. Kremer, J. Rachlin, R. Katilius, V. Cepinskis; cellists - M. Rostropovich, D. Gering, N. Gutman, I. Monighetti, A. Rudin; violist - J. Bashmet, and others. He also prepared and conducted over 100 works of Lithuanian composers for their first performances. For his merits to the country's musical culture, Juozas Domarkas has been awarded various national awards: the Lithuanian State Prize (1974), the Government of Lithuania's Arts Prize (1998), and the Orders of the Grand Duke Gediminas I (1994) and IV (1998) Degrees, the National Arts and Culture Prize of Lithuania (2000). In 2006, Juozas Domarkas was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Republic of Poland for his contribution to the development of Polish-Lithuanian cooperation.
