Teisutis Makačinas (b. 1938) studied composition with Prof. Julius Juzeliūnas at the Lithuanian State Conservatory (present Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre). After graduation in 1961, he started teaching theory at the Lithuanian State Conservatory (1961–1967) and composition at the Vilnius Conservatory where he subsequently became head of the Music Theory and Composition Department (1973–2001). He currently holds professorship at the Lithuanian Academy of Music ad Theatre (since 1996). In 1990, he was awarded prize of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra for his Sinfonia giocosa. In 2013 his artistic accomplishments were recognised with the honorary insignia of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture "Carry Your Light and Faith".
The composer describes his style of writing as a junction of neoclassicism with a sort of folk music transformations reminiscent of Bartók. Although he seems to avoid quoting Lithuanian folk tunes, certain folk intonations still play an important part in many of his works. Taken as a whole, his music reveals its linear nature, inclination for polyphonic procedures of elaboration and development as well as clearly defined structures, based on strict inner logic. The accretion of simple, slightly varied repetitive patterns in his compositions of the recent decade attest to the increase of minimalist tendencies in his music.
Even though he is best known for his immensely popular pop songs, Teisutis Makačinas has also written in a variety of genres, including orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral music, music for teatre and films. He writes profusely for organ: he is an author of five organ sonatas, which represent a unique blend of traditional and modern elements. He is also very much fond of a sound produced by the string orchestra, because string instruments, according to him, are most lively and best responding to the efforts of a performer.
© Eglė Gudžinskaitė
