Cellist Rimantas Armonas is a laureate of the Prize for Culture and Arts of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, a laureate of the Golden Disc Award Lithuania, and a member of chamber ensembles – the Armonas-Uss Duo and the Armonas Trio. Rimantas Armonas studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) and at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 1980, he won the 1st prize at the International Cello Competition in Minsk.
Since 1978, Rimantas Armonas has been teaching at the LMTA Department of Strings and at the Department of Chamber Ensemble. From 1986 to 1988, he worked as a professor at the National Institute of Music in Algeria. In 2000–2011, professor was the head of the Strings Department of the LMTA Kaunas Faculty. In 2011–2019, cellist worked at the Music Academy of Lithuanian Vytautas Magnus University. Since 2018, Rimantas Armonas has been holding a position of the head of the LMTA Department of Chamber Ensemble. As a soloist and a member of various chamber ensembles, Rimantas Armonas has given performances in many countries of the European Union and also in Canada, Japan, Russia, Belarus and Algeria.
He has performed with Lithuanian and Belarusian orchestras under the baton of Juozas Domarkas, Saulius Sondeckis, Donatas Katkus, Modestas Pitrėnas (Lithuania), Pavel Berman (Italy), Olivier Grangean (France), Boris Raisky (Russia), and many others. Rimantas Armonas has participated in prestigious classical and contemporary music festivals in Lithuania and abroad. Professor leads masterclasses and is invited to work as a jury member in various competitions in Poland, Belarus, Moldova and Lithuania. More than 40 cellists and many musicians of chamber ensemble have completed cello studies under the supervision of professor Armonas. Now they all have made the successful career in music sphere, both in Lithuania and abroad.
The repertoire of cellist ranges from classical music to contemporary pieces of various foreign composers. Yet, he has always been an enthusiastic promoter of the Lithuanian music. Professor has performed over 50 world premieres of the opuses by Lithuanian and foreign composers. In addition, he has recorded over 150 compositions for Lithuanian and foreign radio stations, and has released 8 albums in various countries. Professor has performed, edited and released a number of works for cello solo, cello and piano duo, piano trio and the other compositions of chamber ensembles written by Lithuanian composers Julius Andrejevas, Valentinas Bagdonas, Feliksas Bajoras, Osvaldas Balakauskas, Vytautas Barkauskas, Justinas Bašinskas, Zita Bružaitė, Jurgis Juozapaitis, Vytautas Germanavičius, Antanas Kučinskas, Bronius Kutavičius, Arvydas Malcys, Onutė Narbutaitė, Anatolijus Šenderovas, Remigijus Šileika, Juozas Širvinskas, and Vladas Švedas.