An internationally acclaimed conductor, pedagogue and founder of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra Professor SAULIUS SONDECKIS (1928-2016) was a recipient of highest distinctions given to a performer in Lithuania. During long creative career he conducted over 3000 concerts in nearly every European country, as well as the USA, Japan, Cuba, Canada, Taiwan and South Korea.
The Student Orchestra of the M.K.Ciurlionis School of Arts under the leadership of Saulius Sondeckis won the gold medal at the Herbert von Karajan contest of youth orchestras in Berlin. In 1988, as an outstanding pedagogue he was invited to the St Petersburg Conservatory to form and develop a student chamber orchestra, which became Camerata St Petersburg – an official symphony orchestra of the State Hermitage Museum.
A recipient of the Lithuanian State Award, the Government Culture and Art Prize as well as the National Culture and Art Prize, Prof. S. Sondeckis was also decorated with various other national and international orders. Maestro was an Honorary Doctor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Šiauliai University, and Honorary Professor of the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Academy in St Petersburg. In 2013, the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania awarded Prof. S. Sondeckis the insignia of honour Carry Your Light and Believe.
Maestro led various festival orchestras accumulating a gigantic repertoire featuring works of every epoch and style, recording a number of vinyl and CDs in Lithuania and abroad
In Lithuania Prof. Sondeckis created events that have grown into traditional ones: since 1963 – Sunday concerts at the Vilnius Cathedral , since 1966 – candlelight New Year’s Concerts, since 1972 – Night Serenades in Tiškevičiai Palace in Palanga. Maestro was an initiator and director of the Chamber Music Festival in Vilnius and the International Saulius Sondeckis Festival-Competition in Šiauliai.
