Active as a conductor, violist, musicologist and teacher, Donatas Katkus was educated at the Vilnius and Moscow conservatories and completed a postgraduate course in chamber ensemble in Budapest. In 1965 he formed the Vilnius String Quartet, playing the viola with the ensemble until 1994. The Quartet won first prize at the International Liège Competition (Belgium) and has toured in more than 30 countries.
Katkus is a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre where he coaches chamber ensembles and string quartets. Since 1995 he has been running master classes in Pommersfelden (Germany) and directing the St. Christopher Summer Music Festival in Vilnius. He is a recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize of Arts and Culture (2001) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Creativity Award (2003).
