Algis Zhuraitis was a Soviet and Lithuanian conductor. He was born in Raseiniai, Lithuania, on July 27, 1928. He graduated from the Vilnius Conservatory in 1950, where he studied piano with Stasys Vainiūnas, and from the Moscow Conservatory in 1958, where he studied conducting with Nikolai Anosov.
From 1947, Zhuraitis worked as an accompanist at the Vilnius Conservatory Opera Studio; from 1950, he was an accompanist at the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre. He made his conducting debut there in 1951 with Moniuszko’s opera Halka. After moving to Moscow in 1955, he became assistant conductor of the All-Union Radio Grand Symphony Orchestra, then a conductor with Mosconcert in 1958. In 1960, he joined the Bolshoi Theatre, where he conducted for the rest of his career. In 1997, he returned to Lithuania to conduct at the Lithuanian National Opera.
Zhuraitis conducted both opera and ballet, in classical and contemporary repertoire, and his repertory included more than 60 works. His ballet productions included Khachaturian’s Spartacus, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Eshpai’s Angara, for which he received the 1977 USSR State Prize. He also conducted operas including Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Massenet’s Werther, and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa. He received the title Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1968 and People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1976.
Bolshoi violinist Arthur Shtilman considered Zhuraitis well suited to conducting ballet, citing his strong memory, command of the genre, and ability to work without relying closely on the score. Shtilman also judged him less flexible and warm in matters of musical interpretation. Zhuraitis sometimes altered the scores he conducted; in the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, for example, he marked the first and second violins to play in unison rather than as written. He died in Moscow on October 25, 1998, after being diagnosed with cancer the previous year.