Jonas Domarkas

Jonas Domarkas (1934-2020) was trained as a choir conductor at the Klaipėda Music School before he entered the Lithuanian State Conservatory (present Academy of Music) where he studied music theory. After graduating in 1958, he has been teaching at the music school in Šiauliai, and later at the Pedagogical Institute in Vilnius, while at the same time studying composition as an extramural student with Prof. Eduardas Balsys at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. His works have been performed in Latvia, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Denmark, the Ukraine and the USA.

Instrumental music is a predominating trend in Jonas Domarkas' creative output. Making his debut as an author writing in most substantial academic genres, he later came to compose more applicable music - marches, paraphrases, short pieces, and songs. The composer displayed inventiveness in handling with various compositional techniques by frequently incorporating the elements of jazz and popular music in his pieces. With a proclivity to complex rhythmic superimpositions and unconventional means of articulation, Jonas Domarkas was especially attentive to the rhythmic organisation of his works.