Donatas Bagurskas
Associate Professor at the LMTA Department of String Instruments. Subjects: Double Bass. Languages: English (C2), Russian (C1).
The Double Bass Poet — such an epithet, after one of the concerts, was given to double bassist Donatas Bagurskas who is now becoming a more and more noticeable ambassador of this exceptional musical instrument, both in Lithuania and abroad. In 2000-2010, having graduated from Kaunas Juozas Naujalis Music Gymnasium and later, from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the musician was the concert master of the double bass group of The Vilnius City Municipality St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and played in the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra.
Now, Donatas Bagurskas is a member of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. He also continuously performs as a soloist with other orchestras. In 2011, on the stage of the Vilnius Festival, he performed Nino Rota’s Divertimento Concertante for Double Bass and Orchestra conducted by Marcello Rota. In 2014, Donatas Bagurskas together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra performed Gavin Bryars’ Farewell to St. Petersburg – Concerto for Double Bass, Male Chorus and Orchestra, and in 2017, he played Armando Trovajoli’s Sconcerto – Suite for Double Bass and Orchestra. These are not the only world’s classical music works for double bass that Donatas Bagurskas performed in Lithuania for the first time.
In 2009, the performer participated in a UNICEF benefit concert The Genius of the World Classical Music performing Camille Saint-Saens’s Carnival of the Animals together with Julian Rachlin, Itamar Golan, Richard Joo, Aleksey Igudesman, Boris Andrianov, and Sir Roger Moore as the narrator. Donatas Bagurskas was invited to collaborate on the recording of Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova’s album String Paths released in 2014 by ECM Records and nominated for GRAMMY Awards.
The musician’s repertoire is extremely wide, from Baroque masterpieces to contemporary music compositions, including a Concerto for Double Bass specially designed and dedicated to Vilnius-born composer and pianist Denis Grotsky. Donatas Bagurskas also performs as a jazz musician – with the singer Evelina Sašenko and pianist Dmitrijs Golovanovs he presented the program Chopin Jazz Inn, participated in the Birštonas Jazz Festival in the project Anaiptol (Eng. By No Means) by Lithuanian composer Linas Rimša.
Donatas Bagurskas collaborates with the Čiurlionis String Quartet, the Chordos String Quartet, and Mettis String Quartet. Th double bassist is also a member of the ensemble 4 Tango. The performing virtuoso conducts master classes and is invited to participate in the evaluation committees of international competitions. One of Donatas Bagurskas’ latest initiatives is a double bass orchestra, the only of its kind in Lithuania.
2021 07 19