Tomas Leiburas

Biography
Tomas Leiburas studied piano and composition in Vilnius. From 1975 to 1983, he was the pianist of the Lithuania Radio and Television Light Music Orchestra. After that, he was Music Art Director of the Association of Orchestras and Ensembles of Vilnius City for three years. In 1995, he was appointed conductor of that same LRT Orchestra, of which he had been the pianist before; he fulfilled this job until 2006. In 2007, Leiburas put together the Tomas Leiburas Orchestra; in it, he brings together young and talented musicians, who, under his supervision, get the opportunity to play all styles of popular music, ranging from jazz to Latin and pop. Leiburas composes much of the group’s repertoire and, moreover, plays the keyboards in it.

In 1994, Lithuania took part for the first time in the Eurovision Song Contest, having itself represented by singer-songwriter Ovidijus Vyšniauskas and his melancholic ballad ‘Lopšine mylimai’. Vyšniauskas had arranged the music himself; in Dublin, the orchestration to this song was conducted by Tomas Leiburas. Unfortunately, the subtlety of this entry was not appreciated by the European juries, who did not award it a single point. Lithuania finished at the bottom of the table on a 25th spot. Because the country declined participating until 1999, the first Eurovision year in which no orchestra was present, Tomas Leiburas is the only ever Lithuanian conductor to have performed in a Eurovision Song Contest.

In due course, a more extensive biography of Tomas Leiburas will be published on this website

Website(s):

orchestra.lt