Echoes of Lithuania: Petras Sarpalius, A Diasporic Musician

Join Lithuanian Archives Project (LAP) for an evening commemorating Petras Sarpalius’ impact on the music community in Chicagoland during the first half of the 20th century. Petras was a Lithuanian-American composer and musician whose parents emigrated to the United States in the 1880’s while Lithuania was still occupied by Tsarist Russia. Sarpalius and his siblings, John, Joseph, William, Motiejus and Karl were born in Wanamie, Pennsylvania, into a family of musicians. At the age of 12, Petras lost his leg while working as a child laborer in the Pennsylvania coal mines. This exhibit tells the story of his resilience, spirit and longing for Lithuania.

The Sarpalius family settled initially in Pennsylvania before several family members moved to Chicago to escape working in the coal mines. Upon moving from Pennsylvania, Petras pursued college at Cornell University on a full scholarship to study violin. After that, Petras worked at Commonwealth Edison and the Chicago Civic Symphony, in addition to being a violin and piano teacher to children throughout his adult years. In 1923, the “ Birutės” (Birutė Choir) was founded and Petras was the first choir director. The Birute Choir was founded 1907, and its founder was also widely considered to be the founder of Lithuanian opera in the United States, Mikas Petrauskas. The Birutė Choir was one of the first Lithuanian choirs in the United States. It combined choir, theater, and operetta performances and helped establish Lithuanian cultural life among early Lithuanian immigrant. It was active from 1907 through the 1950s. Petrauskas played a key role in establishing Lithuanian opera with his opera “Birutė,” which premiered in 1906 in Vilnius. The opera “Birutė” is considered the beginning of professional Lithuanian opera.Petrauskas later immigrated to Chicago, where he helped build Lithuanian musical theater in the diaspora, where he founded the Birutė Choir (Chicago), staged Lithuanian operettas and musical productions and trained singers and musicians in the Lithuanian immigrant community. These productions were precursors to later Lithuanian opera organizations in the United States, such as the Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago, which was founded much later by the post-World War II Lithuanian refugee generation.

Sarpalius was associated with Lithuanian cultural and musical life in the Lithuanian-American community and worked with organizations such as the Lietuvių Moterų Progresyvių Sąjunga. He was known as a choro mokytojas (choir teacher / choir director) in the Lithuanian diaspora community. Petras helped organize and direct choirs connected to Lithuanian cultural and social organizations. For example, the Lietuvių Moterų Progresyvių Sąjunga (LMPS) was a Lithuanian-American women’s organization active in the early–mid 20th century. Their chapters often organized concerts, cultural evenings, and patriotic events where Lithuanian choirs performed. Music was central to diaspora life because choirs preserved Lithuanian language and national songs. Cultural groups like LMPS sponsored choral performances, celebrations, and community events. Choir directors, like Sarpalius, trained singers and prepared programs for fundraisers, holidays, and cultural festivals. He was a part of the Lithuanian Day Celebration of 1934 as a conductor of the Lietva band. Petras carried on that love of music until his death in Chicago in 1953.

In 2020, upon the initiative of Sarpalius’ great-granddaughter, Anne Wallace, the Lithuanian Archives Project started to gather the scattered archival materials related to Petras’ legacy, as it relates to both Lithuanian diasporic musicians and the history of immigration in the United States. Some of his work was found preserved in various family members’ collections, others at various institutions scattered throughout the Midwestern United States as well as the West Coast.

In preserving Petras’ legacy, an intersection between what is traditionally known as “community archiving” intersects with the archival material found in various traditional libraries and institutions. LAP has the honor of being able to digitize and help maintain the integrity of the sheet music and the emigration story of a first-wave Lithuanian family. The Sarpalius family history is supplemented by a series of oral history interviews of Petras’ family members. All are available for free to listen to via the Lithuanian Diaspora Digital Archives (LDDA), the global lithuanian diaspora archives of the Lithuanian Archives Project.

Entry is free, but donations are welcome to support Lithuanian Archives Project (501c3). Light refreshments will be served.

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