Prof. Vytautas Miškinis

Vytautas Miškinis studied choral conducting at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) in the class of Prof. Herman Perelstein. He served as accompanist and choirmaster of the boys’ choir “Ąžuoliukas” and, since 1979, has been its Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. In 1979, he founded the “Ąžuoliukas” Music School and served as its director until 1985. He has also worked with the Kaunas State Choir and the vocal ensemble Museum Musicum. With these ensembles, he has won top prizes at prestigious international choral competitions.

Miškinis has served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of numerous Lithuanian Song Festivals. For two decades, he was President of the Lithuanian Choral Union, a consultant to the Music Commission of Europa Cantat (European Federation of Young Choirs), an honorary member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the Japan Choral Association, and the Italian Choral Directors Association. He has been a member of the IFCM (International Federation for Choral Music) Youth Commission, a jury member of the Choir Olympics (World Choir Games), a member of the World Choir Council (WCC), and Honorary Artistic Director of the Wuhan Philharmonic Youth Choir (China), among many other roles.

Professor Miškinis teaches at the Department of Choral Conducting at LMTA. He has led masterclasses in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Slovenia, the United States, Singapore, Russia, Indonesia, China, Italy, South Korea, Costa Rica, Germany, Taiwan, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and many other countries. He has served as a jury member in numerous international choral and composition competitions.

For more than four decades, under Miškinis’ leadership, “Ąžuoliukas” has played a significant role in promoting Lithuanian choral music both nationally and internationally. With the choir, he has toured across Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan; participated in many international competitions and festivals, winning numerous awards; made over one hundred recordings for Lithuanian Radio; appeared in television programs, films, and musical productions; and recorded 35 vinyl records and 20 CDs.

Miškinis is also a prolific composer, having written more than 900 works for children’s, youth, and mixed choirs. His oeuvre includes 20 Mass settings, several cantatas (Creator alme siderum, Magnificat, Gratulatione campanae, Thus Spoke My Homeland to Me, The White Time of Lithuania Expands), the opera The City of Dandelion Fluff, Passion According to St. John, Light Mass, Pastoral Mass, and many other works. His compositions have been recorded on CDs and radio archives in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the United States, France, Slovenia, Germany, and elsewhere, and have received numerous awards in Lithuania and abroad. His works have been published by international publishers in Germany, France, the United States, Spain, Japan, Latvia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, and Slovenia. Each year, leading vocal ensembles worldwide commission new choral works from him.

Vytautas Miškinis was awarded the honorary title of Merited Artist of Lithuania (1985), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania (2005), and the Žygimantas Augustas Gold Medal (2007). In 2010, he received the Lithuanian Government Prize for Culture and Art. In 2014, he was awarded the Ministry of Culture’s Honorary Distinction “Carry Your Light and Believe” and the public award – First Degree Medal “For Merits to Vilnius and the Nation”. In 2021, he was granted the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts. In 2024, he was named an Honorary Citizen of Vilnius.