The Lithuanian Vladas Jakubėnas (1904–78) is one of a lost generation of Baltic composers.
A student of Schreker in Berlin, he returned home to help build the
musical culture of his country.
But the Nazi invasion and Soviet
occupation drove him into exile and, after five years in refugee
camps in Germany, he settled in Chicago, playing an important role
in the Lithuanian diaspora in North America.
These choral songs show
the deep identification of his late-Romantic style with the
folk-music of the land he was forced to leave behind.
The Latvian refugee camps in Germany also comprised 152
singers, 197 instrument players, 71 composers and conductors.
Under the management of Bruno Skulte the Oldenburg Opera was founded and the “Latvian
Ballet” under the management of Osvalds Lēmanis.
The string quartet of Arvīds Norītis with its 121 concerts and the famous men’s
double quartet “Tēvija” gained outstanding success.
48 mixed and men’s choirs and 14 vocal ensembles were established.
In the summer of 1946, the first exile song festival (song days) was held in
Fischbach, Bayreuth, Ansberg and elsewhere.