Garuta, Lucija (1902 - 1977)
Biography Works
Foto 1
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 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, Your Land is
Burning!) 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. For
many years – until the Second Awakening – the performance of her
cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! was
forbidden.
The composer died on February 15, 1977.
