A.) Interview of Sarunas Jankauskas conducted by Jade Deatherage on March 21st, 2019.

B.) This interview was conducted in person in Harrisonburg, VA on the campus of James Madison University in Dr. Jankauskas’s office in the Music Building. His office is on the second floor of the building with windows facing Duke Hall. A moderate amount of editing had to be done mainly because of the way he speaks having English as his second language as well as the fact that this was fairly casual conversation. To set up the interview, I sat in a chair next to his desk and he sat at his desk. There was about 2 and a half feet of space in between us and I used my iPhone XR to record this interview. The space was quiet and the only anticipated obstacles were potentially instrumental lessons that would be happening in the rooms around us. We did not experience any interruptions throughout the course of this interview.

C.) Dr. Sarunas Jankauskas is a native of Lithuania. In his early years of education, he attended a school in Lithuania while under Soviet Rule. Up until the 4th grade, 1990, he was forced to wear a uniform to school where he would wear a pin of a young Lenin’s face on his lapel. After Lithuania declared independence from the USSR in 1990, he finished grade school and then went on the a Music Academy. He moved to the United States after his third year at a Music Academy in Lithuania (year and exact location not specified). After moving to the states he attended Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI for his Undergraduate degree. He then went on to Rice University in Houston, TX for his masters and finally, received his DMA from the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, TX. His faculty biography states “Dr. Jankauskas previously taught at Texas Lutheran and Wichita State Universities, in addition to serving as principal clarinetist of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. He studied at the Academy of Music and Theatre in his native Lithuania.”

D.) Research (Chicago style citations)

Rafał Godoń, Palmira Jucevičienė, and Zdenko Kodelja. “Philosophy of Education in Post-Soviet Societies of Eastern Europe: Poland, Lithuania and Slovenia.” Comparative Education40, no. 4 (2004): 559-69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4134627.

1. This piece discusses life during the pre-soviet era, era of Soviet rule, and post soviet era of multiple European countries. This piece also states how “Soviet educational thinking asserted its influence, sometimes harshly.” Lithuania held fast to most of its customs and educational ideologies thanks to numerous Lithuanian thinkers. The piece also continues to discuss the importance of social education in Lithuania or, aukléjimas. Immediately following the interview, Dr. Jankauskas and I talked a bit more about his early life and his native country. He even mentioned how in grocery stores and convenience stores, you weren’t just able to buy whatever you wanted. He said this in regard to the idea that Lithuanians at the time in the mid 1980s-1990s couldn’t just go into Target and purchase whatever they pleased. Selection of items was more limited to what was deemed necessities for the consumer.

Klumbytė, Neringa. “MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND CITIZENSHIP IN LITHUANIA.” Journal of Baltic Studies 41, no. 3 (2010): 295-313. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43212969.

1. This piece talks about the rule of the Soviet party and the eventual abolishment of communism. Lithuania was one of the first countries to declare independence from the USSR. The journal also discusses the difficulties faced as the transformation of Lenin’s party into a social-democratic was suffering prior to the end of 1990. Dr. Jankauskas proudly mentioned (off the recording) that Lithuania was one of the first countries to split from the Soviet Union and declare complete independence.

1. This piece discusses the shift between the (now) post-soviet Lithuania into the newly Independent European country focusing primarily on its capital city of Vilnius. It discusses the shift between the work done of citizens during the soviet era versus the shift to the idea of doing-it-yourself following the fall of the USSR rule in the country. Dr. Jankauskas touched on this a bit off the record as well stating how after the fall of the regime, Lithuania dove back into its customs and traditions and had a stronger sense of nationality and pride.

E.) Transcription

JD: [00:00:01] All right. Can you state your name and where you’re from and what year you were born.

SJ: [00:00:07] My name is Sarunas Jankauskas. I was born in 1980 and where am I from?

JD: [00:00:17] Yeah.

SJ: [00:00:19] I’m from Stanton Virginia.

JD: [00:00:22] [Laughing] Where were you born?

SJ: [00:00:23] I was born in Lithuania.

JD: [00:00:25] OK so I guess tell us about a little bit of growing up in Lithuania like schooling especially, I remember you mentioning to the studio how you’d have to wear uniforms with the pins on them, so what was that like comparatively to when you got to the US for school?

SJ: [00:00:46] OK so back there I was at school all the way. I didn’t go to the first grade, so second grade through 12th grade and then for six more years after that three years a special pre-college program and three years at the Academy of Music which is at the university level. And then I came to the States as a transfer student. So up until 1990 all the way to the fourth grade, my first three years in school it was still technically a Soviet Union. And then things started shifting in the fifth grade. In 1991-92 was completely clear of the old regime. So yes we didn’t have to wear uniforms and navy uniforms for boys with white shirt and either yellow or navy tie. And I mentioned to you the little red star with the little golden head of young Lenin. OK. That was it for the first four grades. And for girls there were these brown dresses that looked kind of nice. But they looked sort of similar to what you see in like English TV shows that would serve as square anyways you always have to have all the buttons on.

JD: [00:02:46] Always all the way up?

SJ: [00:02:47] No no no not button up but like buttons have to be, but whether you button on or off you cannot miss buttons.

JD: [00:02:53] Oh OK.

SJ: [00:02:54] If you miss buttons for a few days teachers would say “hey get fixed, go fix the button” OK. Well the schooling is very good there you know. So then going back to that thing a little bit, from the 5th grade things changed. We started not to need to wear uniforms because my country became independent. But overall I think the school system is very good in the way that it’s varied and you get enough individual attention. My class size would be between 20 and 25 people and one class in one classroom. Unless it’s a language. From fifth grade onwards when we studied languages whether it’s English or Russian class would be split.

JD: [00:04:02] Okay.

SJ: [00:04:02] So you do a little bit more individual work that way. Also unlike in the US whether you’re in middle school or I don’t know but those but in high school you will always have same classmates at every class.

JD: [00:04:21] OK, so it does differ from most US schooling

SJ: [00:04:26] You can have electives, you can choose whether maybe you do music or art. And some schools right now have like a choice between humanities and sciences. But for the most part you always take same classes. So you get to know your classmates quite well. You know in a good way and a not so good way.

JD: [00:04:54] So what was the average graduating class size?

SJ: [00:04:59] OK. That’s also very different from here.

JD: [00:05:01] Yeah.

SJ: [00:05:01] When I graduated we were twenty three people graduating in the senior class at that school. Because the entire school was just about 900 students.

JD: [00:05:18] OK.

SJ: [00:05:19] But many people don’t make it to the to the 12th grade, to the senior year. Some go to specialized schools community colleges so to say after the ninth grade. Because it’s actually in a way it’s easier than finishing a good high school. So that’s where they can [finish school]. It’s not a community college but it’s a specialized school where you can finish your high school subjects and then get some sort of direction there. So, I thought that the school was tough overall. Yeah. You know I came to the states and as a transfer I had to take a math test here and I tested out. I didn’t have to take any college math so because it seemed like it was sort of like you know the test was like about 10th maybe early 11th grade material. So it wasn’t it wasn’t difficult. I feel like I remembered many things at school. College education is different in the way that whatever you study, A lot of it is focused on that discipline. Right. Music is music, and maybe you have one general education class per semester which for me it was at that time like philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, you know, humanities related, unlike here. So I think many schools are like that. If you study engineering maybe you’ll take English. Maybe you’ll take political science or something like Yeah. But the rest is going to be your major classes unlike here. Anything more specific?

JD: [00:07:31] Well why did you choose to come to theU.S. instead of going to another country?

SJ: [00:07:36] Well as many young musicians at that point, many of us were looking for opportunities to go abroad or just to expand our horizons. Just for a better life. If I stayed there I probably would have played in one of the state wind bands, made a small salary maybe taught a little bit privately or in one of the small city music schools. Music school is actually like after school. [It is a] special separate institution. But I was looking to go somewhere whether it’s going to be Western Europe or the US. And I met the professor who was visiting who was my undergrad teacher here. He was visiting doing masterclasses and recitals and I served him as a translator and I played for him and then I inquired about a chance to study with him. So he made my way here. So it’s due to one specific person that I connected with.

JD: [00:08:58] What things do you miss most about Lithuania?

SJ: [00:09:07] Well of course I miss my family. I mean obviously I miss food, [food] is different, but some of the customs and the purity of culture. Customs, whether it’s a custom of celebrating something or just the way people celebrate birthdays [or] the way people celebrate New Year’s, Christmas, are all slightly different. So I miss it. I miss a lot of that. What else do I miss? I also miss a very free unrestricted communication between people. Here, sometimes people tend to stick to one topic and be polite and you know when people jump from topic to topic it’s like a weird thing sort of.

JD: [00:10:15] Yes.

SJ: [00:10:15] Yeah. If you sit down with somebody and start talking it’s very spontaneous.

JD: [00:10:23] A little more sporadic.

SJ: [00:10:25] Yeah yeah. In a matter of minutes you can jump from this to this and you say “oh by the way that, oh by the way that!” And it changes. So I don’t know, I miss that. You know, there’s some kind of freedom about it. I think respect is a little bit different here especially in regards to space, to having personal space. Like you know when you go to the grocery store or back in Europe you get hit by baskets and shopping carts all the time. So I don’t miss that. I don’t like that. But you know, its hard to describe. Yeah just spontaneity of communication sort of, and also people are less careful as far as when you don’t know somebody, you know 10 minutes later you can really feel like you’re really know the person. There’s this sort of trust. And here it takes a little bit longer to really build trust with people. I miss the landscape too but Virginia is quite nice.

JD: [00:11:52] Virginia is a beautiful state. Do you miss it compared to when you were in Illinois right? Was it Illinois? At Wichita?

SJ: [00:12:01] Oh that’s Kansas.

JD: [00:12:02] That’s Kansas?

SJ: [00:12:03] Now my first location was Michigan. It was for two years. Then I lived in Texas for seven years; Houston and Austin, and then Kansas. So Virginia’s my fourth state.

JD: [00:12:16] So was Michigan your first impression of the United States?

SJ: [00:12:19] Yeah of course! Yeah, in the Midwest.

JD: [00:12:21] Would you ever consider going back to Lithuania? [Maybe] Moving there?

SJ: [00:12:26] Not now. No, I mean I have family, kids, a job and its a home here now. It’s too much. It would be too much of the change and also professionally, the opportunities are not the same. I would never have what I have here. You know, a house and a car and you know the job security is not quite the same.

JD: [00:12:58] What made you choose James Madison University when you were job searching? what brought you to this school?

SJ: [00:13:08] Well that year when I was looking for a “step up from my previous position,” There were just a few positions open. This was one of them and there was another school which was a higher profile as far as name goes. Higher brand name, but I think the environment and the geography and people that work [at JMU] made this a better fit. Also I felt like JMU was really a hidden gem and didn’t market itself as a brand name. And the students are equally or more bright like a strongly well put together group than in the other place. I mean, I had a choice between two places but this just felt like a better fit for long term success and also for family.

JD: [00:14:27] So we’re gonna actually jump back again a little bit.

SJ: [00:14:30] Yeah.

JD: [00:14:31] It’s a broad question but what made you choose to do music? Why music and why the clarinet?

SJ: [00:14:36] Ok so my father was an amateur saxophone player and during his student years he played in that sort of concert/parade the band at the engineering university and was very good. The band they call the wind orchestra, but the wind band was really good. And people used to play then multiple instruments, amateurs, but still they would probably play you know at a good undergraduate level. They were very passionate about it. So he played the clarinet, saxophone, euphonium, percussion, you name it. Mostly saxophone. So he thought it would be a good thing for me to learn clarinet then it was his initiative to start putting me on at music school which is again separate. Public schools don’t have music like we do here like band, orchestra, choir, they don’t have it. Some do but most don’t. You have to go into a separate institution after you’ve finished your stuff and then maybe two, three times a week for a couple hours you go to a different thing, different program and that’s where you do your stuff. So anyway he signed me up to go to the music school and I had a clarinet to play. You know as a fifth grader. All right [I thought] “Maybe this is interesting.” For a couple of years and then I started disliking it. I did guitar, had my bands and stuff and then switched back sort of to the classical side of things like the classical guitar and then a little bit more of clarinet. Before my senior year, before my last year in high school I decided to actually do clarinet. The influence of a few people just then. We went to the capital city, Vilnius, to look for a guitar teacher but the person that was helping us was actually a wind band conductor and I was sort of swayed a little bit but I don’t regret it. Just my intuition told me that I could just have more music making opportunities than on guitar.

JD: [00:16:54] OK.

SJ: [00:16:54] But basically yeah the choice was my father’s influence.

JD: [00:16:58] It was your father’s influence?

SJ: [00:16:59] Mm hmm. In general when I started playing.

JD: [00:17:04] Oh yes just starting to play your instrument. So at the music school. Well actually in general schools where they private institutions? Each school was all public?

SJ: [00:17:16] All public.

JD: [00:17:16] But you just had to go to a different place to learn music.

SJ: [00:17:18] Right. Right. That was public, yes.

JD: [00:17:21] I guess another [question] is, had you not done music do you know what else you would have wanted to do? Had you not [done music]?

SJ: [00:17:30] Yeah I would have done geography probably.

JD: [00:17:34] Really?

SJ: [00:17:34] Yes. It was something that I liked from an early age. At the year five I knew all the capitals and all flags of most world countries. I was just a little bit unlucky that my geography teacher at school had some clashes going on. Our personalities just didn’t match. I also liked astronomy quite a bit. But that stayed as a hobby. I’ll be teaching my kids about it but I know a fair amount about astronomy. But it probably would have been geography because I liked maps. I like just finding things about the world you know. While in the States, I started looking a lot at National Geographic magazines and all those things. That’s what I like knowing about the world.

JD: [00:18:37] All right I’ll ask you one last question. Since coming here just what have been your greatest sources of joy?

SJ: [00:18:43] Since coming to the states?

JD: [00:18:45] Yes. What are the great sources of joy [coming to the states] or even just coming to Virginia alone.

SJ: [00:18:51] Oh goodness. Oh I have to think about this one. I to give you an answer that’s actually fitting for your article, not by quote.

JD: [00:19:08] You can say whatever.

SJ: [00:19:16] Right, right. So I like people. Yeah. I mean I think I like people. I really like my students here. [Both] Students and colleagues. And I like nature that’s around here. And I also I like that my family’s comfortable.

JD: [00:19:56] Mm Hmm.

SJ: [00:19:56] I don’t know, maybe a sense of stability because I move a lot from place to place. Yeah. And now it seems like this is the place where I feel like I might not move for quite a while if ever.

JD: [00:20:12] Yeah. Actually I lied, I’m going to ask you one more question.

SJ: [00:20:17] Yeah, that’s fine.

JD: [00:20:17] How do you like being like the applied Clarinet professor, a studio Professor, as opposed to just like one of the professors who lectures in a classroom.

SJ: [00:20:30] Previously I’ve done both. I’ve taught music appreciation and I’ve thought 20th century music.

JD: [00:20:35] Because you develop much more personal connections with your students as I think the applied [clarinet] Professor.

SJ: [00:20:41] Absolutely. Yes you do. And also as a classroom teacher for a large group of classes you don’t have the same opportunity to so-to-say motivate or help students who struggle in a way than you do when you work in an individual setting. So I like it because you get a chance during the course of let’s say an average of four years to really get to know each student.

JD: [00:21:20] Yeah.

SJ: [00:21:21] So more or less but still. And classroom can be nice if you teach a subject to people that are really interested. And I only had that opportunity only once for one semester. I was assigned to teach 20th century music history for graduate students in my previous position and it was fabulous. It was a lot of work but it was really, really good because they were very appreciative. And I just I put in all of me to make sure that that course was really good. So I would do it again you know if let’s say my work assignment could be to teach smaller studio maybe you know teach a new music class of some sort. But you know I don’t need that. Does that answer?

JD: [00:22:18] Yeah. Is there anything else you want to add that I didn’t touch on or something?

SJ: [00:22:24] This is a lot about my identity as a foreigner right?

JD: [00:22:27] Yeah just about how things have been for you. Coming from another country versus people who are from the states.

SJ: [00:22:34] Yeah sure. You know, my first evening when I came to the States I stayed for the first few days as a transition at my professors house. Him and his wife. And he’s Canadian so sort of foreigner and he told me if you work hard, America will hold you like this. You know, America will hug you and will not let you go because here people like success, people appreciate successful people, they celebrate successful people. And I feel like that happened with every year, with every degree of I was receiving. It was harder to think that I could be anywhere else. But also I think part of the success here is a combination of being adaptive. Adaptive to culture, but also simultaneous simultaneously maintaining your identity your personality. So I think I have enjoyed being a foreigner and I think that in the majority of instances people appreciate that my background and were genuinely curious about my background. But I also think it was a valuable, rewarding, learning experience to absorb the necessary aspects of American life and customs so I can be successful, make sense?

JD: [00:24:33] OK. Thank you so much.

SJ: [00:24:36] Yeah absolutely. Happy to do it.

JD: [00:24:38] Thank you.

If I could redo this interview, I would definitely have asked more questions about what life was like outside of school for Dr. Jankauskas while growing up in Lithuania. I also would have asked about how Music Education is different in Lithuania as opposed to in the United States. I would also ask what struggles he faced after moving to the United States.