Stasys Šimkus, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Stasys Šimkus

Lithuanian composer

Date of Birth: 23-Jan-1887

Place of Birth: Jurbarkas District Municipality, Tauragė County, Lithuania

Date of Death: 15-Oct-1943

Profession: composer, conductor, university teacher

Nationality: Lithuania

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Stasys Šimkus (23 January 1887, Motiškiai, now in Jurbarkas district municipality – 15 October 1943, Kaunas) was a Lithuanian composer. Šimkus studied in Vilnius and Warsaw and later became the pupil of Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov, Jazeps Vitols, and Maximilian Steinberg.
After visiting the United States, he went to Leipzig for further studies with Paul Graener and Sigfrid Karg-Elert.
A national Romantic, Šimkus helped resurrect the Lithuanian cultural organization Daina in 1916.
In 1923, he opened a private music school in Klaipeda, which was soon converted into the national Lithuanian conservatory (now called the Klaipeda Stasys Šimkus Conservatoire).
He was a professor of composition at the Conservatoire from 1931 to 1937 and also conducted the State Opera at Kaunas. Šimkus composed several operas, a cantata, a symphonic poem, a piano suite, a ballade, choral works, lieder, and church music.
He composed the music for Lietuvininkai we are born by Georg Sauerwein. His son Algis Šimkus also became a renowned conductor, pianist, and composer.