Lionginas Abarius (born on August 8, 1929 in Maniuliškiai, Zarasai district) is a Lithuanian choir conductor, educator, and composer. His first music teacher was the organist Juozas Dugnas of Antazavės parish. Already during the services, between 1944-1945, he substituted for his teacher and independently played the organ in the Avilių parish (Zarasai district). After finishing Antazavės gymnasium, from 1948-1953 he studied at the J. Tallat-Kelpša Music School in Vilnius. While studying, he sang and played the skuduciai in the Lithuanian State Song and Dance Ensemble. While studying at the Lithuanian State Conservatory (1953-1958), he led the Pavilnio Cultural Center choir and was the choir conductor for the Vilnius Medical Workers' Song and Dance Ensemble. He graduated from the conservatory with honors. Between 1956-1962, he worked as a choir conducting professor at the Vilnius J. Tallat-Kelpša Music Technical School and as the leader of student choir studies. His teaching program was supplemented with works by Lithuanian and foreign composers, and the choir performed in Minsk, as well as participated in the 1960 Republican Song Festival. Between 1959-1972, he taught choir conducting and other choir leadership disciplines at the Lithuanian State Conservatory. From 1961, he was one of the leaders of the State Music Teachers' Mixed Choir, and from 1966, its artistic director and chief conductor. In addition, the choir helped Lithuanian music teachers and choir conductors improve their qualifications and organized a number of concerts, popularizing numerous works. Between 1963-1981, he was the artistic director and chief conductor of the Lithuanian State Radio and Television Mixed Choir, enriching the collective with a wide-ranging musical culture, training them in about 1,000 works from different epochs and styles, and organizing over 700 concerts in Lithuanian cities and other countries, including Russia, Tajikistan, Moldova, and Ukraine. The choir recorded hundreds of songs on magnetic tapes and many of them were also released on records. Abarius prepared anniversary programs for Lithuanian composers' choral music, choral anniversary concerts, and song festival concert programs. He also performed works in the cantata and oratorio genres of foreign classics and contemporary composers, such as G. Verdi's Requiem, S. Moniuszko's "Crimean Sonnets," J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and more. In 1974, his choir was recognized as a deserving collective. From 1981, he taught choir conducting at the Lithuanian State Conservatory's Choir Conducting Department, and from 1983, he was the head professor. From 1986, he was an associate professor and since 1991, a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. In addition to his work at the university, he also worked as the chief conductor of all republican song festivals and choir gatherings. In 1977, he led the third Republican Youth Song Festival, and in 1990, he was the conductor of the Lithuanian National Song Festival, the II World Lithuanian Song Festivals in Kaunas and Vilnius in 1994 and 1998. In 1991, he led the Baltic Student Song Festival "Gaudeamus-XI" in Uppsala, and also the women's choir festivals in Kretinga and district song festivals. He was also the chairman or member of choir review and competition juries, as well as the chairman and member of state choir conducting examination commissions. In 1994, 1997, and 1998, he organized the J. Naujalis Sacred Music Competitions, and also led the Baltic Music Academy's student choir in Vilnius, Leningrad, Moscow, Riga, and Tallinn, nurturing a large number of young choir conductors.
