Menu
Composer, pianist, music theorist and pedagogue, Lūcija Garūta was born on May 14, 1902 in Riga. In 1919, Lūcija Garūta began music 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 in composition and piano in 1925. In 1926, she began her 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 and in 1925–1926 she worked for Latvian Radio. She began her teaching career in 1926 at the People’s Conservatory (1926–1947). She was a Latvian State Conservatory lecturer (1940–1977 and a professor of music in 1972). Lūcija Garūta had a profound influence on Latvian musical culture, teaching composition and music theory to the majority of musicologists and composers who studied at the Conservatory during this time.
Zenta Mauriņa
Alongside her teaching work, Lūcija Garūta had an active performing career. 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 in Latvia as both soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, performing with more than 100 musicians in concert. In 1944, at the premiere of her cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! (God, Thy Earth is Aflame!) she performed on the organ. Unfortunately due to health reasons she retired from active public concert life at the end of 1940.
During the period of 1926 to 1940, Lūcija Garūtas compositions were part of a weekly regular series of concerts with the participation of many of the most prominent singers and instrumentalists of that time (Milda Brehmanes- Štengele, Ādolfs Kaktiņš, Maris Vētra, etc.) Much later still, in the 60s and 70s, concerts and events featuring her music were an important part of Latvian classical music life, often attended by Garūta herself where she continued to receive the love and gratitude of her public.
Lūcija Garūta’s creative process, (as well as many other composers of that time) was overshadowed by the dictatorship of the existing *** (communist or soviet establishment.) The premiere of her opera “The Silver Bird” was cancelled due to the fact that the opera depicted a workers’ strike. Her piano concerto also received harsh criticism from the LPSR Composers’ Union for not adhering to the strict soviet ethos of the time which promoted only bright and optimistic music corresponding with the communist ideology. For many years, it was also forbidden to play the cantata “God, Your Earth is Burning!” (“Dievs, Tave zeme deg!”) until its second revival. It has now become one of her most important and treasured works.
Lūcija Garūtas was an active member of the Latvian Music Promotion Society as well as sitting on the committee board. She received many awards including, the Latvian Culture Foundation award for “Variations in My Homeland”, for symphony orchestra and for “Variations on a Latvian folk song – Karavīri bēdājās” for piano, and an award for Meditation for symphony orchestra. In 1945, she was admitted to the Latvian Composers’ Union. In 1962, she received the title “Meritorious Music Worker of the Latvian SSR.”
The composer died on February 15, 1977, Rīga and she is buried in Riga Forest Cemetery. She is laid to rest in a place assigned to the parish of Old St. Gertrude Church, to which the Garūti family belonged.
Lūcija Garūta expressed in her music everything that was close to her heart and that mattered deeply to her. She chose to create from her own life experiences and expressed in her music that which brought her joy as well as pain. Her compositions are powerful and ambitious, romantic yet full of warmth . Above all they are deeply Latvian and characteristic of their era. In the most tragic and difficult of times, Lūcija Garūta stayed true to her Latvian heritage and her people, always maintaining faith and hope, looking with optimism for the good in life.
