Clarinet
Born in Lithuania in 1950, J. Černius graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where he studied under Prof. A. Budrys. In 1978, he completed his postgraduate education under Prof. V.P. Bezrutshenko at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire.
J. Černius has been a member of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (1973 – 1988), the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra (1988 – 1996) and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra (1996 – 1998).
Since 1998, he has served as an assistant professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the principal clarinettist and conductor of the Lithuanian State Wind Orchestra “Trimitas”.
He was a prize winner at the First Inter-republican Woodwind Performers Competition (Šiauliai, 1983).
As a soloist with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra J. Černius has performed C.M. Weber’s Concertino for clarinet and symphony orchestra, C. Debussy’s Rhapsody for clarinet and symphony orchestra, and J. Juzeliūnas’ Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra under the direction of S. Sondeckis. Together with Prof. A. Budrys he has performed concertos for two clarinets and string orchestra by F. Mendelssohn and F. Krommer-Kramarsch. As a member of the Lithuanian State Wind Quintet he has appeared in Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan.
With the Vilnius String Quartet he has performed clarinet quintets by W.A. Mozart and J. Brahms in Lithuania and Germany.
As a member of the G. Kėvišas’ chamber ensemble he has performed a Lithuanian premiere of O. Messiaen’s Quatour pour la fin du temps. With this ensemble he has appeared in “Baltic Sea Festival” in Stockholm, as well as “Spazio musica 95”, “Festival Internazionale di Musica da Camera”, Cagliari Festival (Italy) and Vilnius Festival.
In 1991, he has led the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor and J. Brahms’ Violin concerto with M. Švėgžda von Bekker as a soloist.
He was awarded first prize and the cup of the best conductor at the competition within the “Euro-Musik Tage Heikendorf” festival (Germany, 2000).
Recently, he has been collaborating with Chordos String Quartet and The Disobedient Ensemble.