A man has gone who dreamt of Grand Lithuania. Grand not in size, but in thought, imagination and creativity. A man has gone who himself worked for such a Lithuania for decades. Professor Saulius Sondeckis is gone.

The period between the encouraging words of Herbert von Karajan to the young musicians Saulius Sondeckis conducted to the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra which put Lithuania on the world map included the entire epoch of Lithuania’s cultural renaissance. Many of the foreign maestros who came to Lithuania sought out professor Sondeckis because he was sort of a symbol of the talent of our country. A void has appeared in the national culture now without the professor, although it is being filled by hundreds of Saulius Sondeciskis’s students.

And a man has left us for whom everything mattered in Lithuania. Raised by his father and standing firmly upon Lithuanian Social Democratic roots, he invited us all not to look away from the individual, and he was deeply concerned with the continuation of social democratic thinking in Lithuania.

In saying goodbye to the Maestro, I express my sincere condolences to his family, his students and his friends, and to the entire cultural community of Lithuania. Our work for Lithuania and culture will be the implementation of his dreams.

Algirdas Butkevičius
Prime minister of Lithuania
Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party