Iuozas Antano Tallat-Kialpsha

Tallat-Kialpsha, Iuozas Antano 

(Juozas Talat-Kelpša). Born Dec. 20, 1888 (Jan. 1, 1889), in the village of Kalnuiai, in what is now Raseiniai Raion; died Feb. 5, 1949, in Vilnius. Soviet composer, conductor, and teacher. Honored Art Worker of the Lithuanian SSR (1945).

Tallat-Kialpsha graduated in 1916 from the Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied under A. K. Liadov, M. O. Shtein-berg, and Ia. J. Vitols. He helped organize the opera theater founded in 1920 in Kaunas, where he also served as conductor; the theater later became the Lithuanian Theater of Opera and Ballet. He also organized the music school in Kaunas, which later became the Kaunas Conservatory. He became an instructor there in 1933 and a professor in 1948. Tallat-Kialpsha became chairman of the Composers’ Union of the Lithuanian SSR in 1948.

Tallat-Kialpsha transcribed more than 700 Lithuanian and Byelorussian folk songs, many of which he rewrote for chorus and for voice and piano. His compositions include the opera The Sergeant Major’s Daughter (1938), works for orchestra, chamber and vocal works, and music for the theater. Tallat-Kialpsha was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1948).