Algirdas Paulavicius
Algirdas Paulavicius was a Soviet and Russian conductor, composer, music teacher, and multi-instrumentalist. He studied violin at the Kaunas Secondary Special Music School and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory as a conductor.
He taught conducting at the conservatory and the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Music College, where he also led the college orchestra. He conducted the Mariinsky Theatre’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and staged operas and musical productions at several theaters. His 1990 production of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers at the Klaipeda Musical Theatre was named Lithuania’s Best Production of the Year. His production of Siegfried Matthus’s opera The Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke at St. Petersburg Opera won the Golden Mask for Best Opera Production in the 1997–98 season.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he played in one lineup of the Leningrad vocal-instrumental ensemble Singing Guitars. He composed music for films including We Are Not Given to Foresee… (1985), For the Sake of a Few Lines (1985), The Gardener (1987), The Abduction of the Sorcerer, Coma (1989), and The House on the Sand (1991). As a conductor, he recorded music for films including Days of Eclipse, Save and Protect, and Sideburns. From 1988 to 1991, he headed the music editorial department at Lenfilm.
In his final decade, he conducted the Mariinsky Theatre’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and served as artistic director and conductor of the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Music College Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra was named after him in 2008. He received the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation in 2000. He died in St. Petersburg on December 20, 2007, and was buried at Krasnenkoye Cemetery.