Dvarionas, Balis Dominiko

Born June 6 (19). 1904, in Liepaja. Soviet composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR (1954).

Dvarionas graduated in piano from the Leipzig Conservatory in 1924 and in conducting in 1939 (as an external student). In 1926 he began teaching piano at the Kaunas School of Music, in 1933 at the Kaunas Conservatory, and in 1949 at the State Conservatory of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius, where he became a professor in 1947. In 1928 he began performing as a pianist; he played in Moscow and Leningrad in 1933. From 1935 to 1938 he was chief conductor of the symphony orchestra of Lithuanian Radio in Kaunas. In 1940 he organized a symphony orchestra in Vilnius. From 1940 to 1941, and again from 1958 to 1961, he was chief director of the symphony orchestra of the Lithuanian Philharmonic Society and for all song festivals of the Lithuanian SSR.

Dvarionas wrote many compositions in various forms, including the opera Dalia (premiere 1959), the ballet Matchmaking (1933), a symphony (1947), a concerto for violin and orchestra (1948; State Prize of the USSR, 1949), two concerti for piano (1960; State Prize of the Lithuanian SSR in 1960 and 1962), a concerto for French horn (1963), two overtures (1946, 1967), instrumental pieces, choruses (The Song Festival, 1965), art songs, adaptations of folk songs, and music for stage and screen (for the film Soviet Lithuania; State Prize of the USSR, 1952). Dvarionas composed the anthem of the Lithuanian SSR (with I. Ŝviadas; words by A. Venclova, 1950). He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.