Juozas Domarkas, born on July 28, 1936, in Varkaliai, was a Lithuanian conductor. He studied clarinet at the Lithuanian Conservatory from 1955 to 1960 and later honed his conducting skills at the Leningrad Conservatory with Ilya Musin. Domarkas became the artistic director and principal conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius in 1964. Domarkas was also a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, teaching conducting from 1968. His contributions were recognized with awards such as the State Prize of Soviet Lithuania in 1974, the Art Prize of the Lithuanian Government in 1998, and the Order of the Knight's Cross of the Republic of Poland in 2006. His work in opera and ballet included productions of Georges Bizet's Carmen in 1985 and 1998, Maurice Ravel's Daphne and Chloe (1997), Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite (1997), and Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus the King (1997).
