Lucija Garuta
1902 - 1977
Composer, pianist, music theorist and teacher Lūcija Garūta was born on May 14, 1902 in Riga. In 1919, Lūcija Garūta began her studies at the Latvian Conservatory, where she studied piano with Marija Žilinska, Hans Schmidt, and Lidija Gomane-Dombrovska. She also studied composition with Jāzeps Vītols. In 1924, Lūcija Garūta graduated from the composition class, and in 1925, the piano class. In 1926, she began studies in Paris, where she studied piano with Alfred Cortot and Isidor Philipp. In 1928, she continued studying composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris with Paul Dukas.
While studying (1919–1921), Lūcija Garūta was the pianist répétiteur at the Latvian Opera, in 1925–1926 she worked at Latvian Radio, and in 1926 she began her teaching career at the People’s Conservatory (1926–1947). She was a Latvian State Conservatory lecturer (1940–1977, from 1972 – a professor). Almost all of the musicologists and composers who studied at the Conservatory during that time period were students of composition and music theory with Lūcija Garūta.
Along with her teaching work, Lūcija Garūta turned to a career in performance. In 1926, she performed in France (Paris), and, in 1929, in Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt-am-Main). In the 1920s and 1930s, Lūcija Garūta was one of the most active pianists both as a soloist as well as accompanist, performing in Riga and in all of Latvia. Overall, Garūta performed with more than 100 musicians in chamber music concerts. In 1944, at the premiere of her cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! ( God, Thy Earth is Aflame! ) she played the organ. Unfortunately, at the end of 1940, due to health reasons, she had to suspend her concert performance work.
Lūcija Garūta’s creative progress was also overshadowed by the oppression of the ideology of the ruling system. The premiere of her opera Sidrabotais putns (The Bird in Silver) was cancelled twice – first in 1938/39, the second at the beginning of 1960. Her Piano Concerto initially received harsh criticism from the Latvian Composers’ Union. Because it was not a controversial theory known as the art of the time. It was the idea that life is good and bad events. So can not be a conflict, do not really have an emotional contrast. Not to mention the tragedy of anything or the person's feelings.And Piano by Lucia Garut was written in memory of his childhood deceased niece, was evaluated as a man of the Soviet unnecessary and unjustified feelings uzbangojošs. In 1956, it experienced a great response from the audience, as deeply and truly made their experience.
For many years – until the Second Awakening (1988) – the performance of her cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! was forbidden.
The composer died on February 15, 1977, Rīga.
Biography taken from composer’s website.
