The Kaunas Branch of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union (LCU) was established on 9 July 1971. Initially, it comprised five composers, Jonas Dambrauskas, Viktoras Kuprevičius, Vladas Švedas, Algimantas Kubiliūnas and Giedrius Kuprevičius, and later was joined by the musicologist Eugenija Ragulskienė. The first chair was Giedrius Kuprevičius. On his initiative, a Saturday column, “Musical Life”, was established in the daily “Kauno Tiesa” (at present “Kauno Diena“), and “A Musical Week“, an annual event featuring new works by Lithuanian composers, was held for a decade. Every spring, there were givenconcerts of new music by Kaunas-based composers.
Later, Kuprevičius was succeeded by Algimantas Kubiliūnas, who took over from him in 1982, and the composer Dalia Kairaitytė, who was chair from 1994 to 2001. It was due to her efforts that the IšArti contemporary music festival, the most important international event organised by the Kaunas Branch of the LCU, was first held in 1997. In 2001, the composer Vidmantas Bartulis became chair of the Kaunas Branch of the LCU and the director of the festival, and the composer Zita Bružaitė took over him in 2007.
In recent years, the Kaunas Branch has suffered heavy losses in the deaths of the composer Daiva Rokaitė-Dženkaitienė, the youngest member, who died from a serious disease at the age of 38 in 2010, and the composer Vladas Švedas, who died at the age of 78 in 2012.
At present, the Kaunas Branch comprises these members: the composers Algirdas Brilius, Zita Bružaitė, Dalia Kairaitytė, Algimantas Antanas Kubiliūnas, Viltė Žakevičiūtė and Giedrius Antanas Kuprevičius, and the musicologists Darius Kučinskas, Kristina Mikuličiūtė-Vaitkūnienė, Alina Ramanauskienė, Aušra Strazdaitė-Ziberkienė.
