Muza Rubackyté - Pianist

from the Years of Pilgrimage cycle to work for piano by Čiurlionis,

MŪZA meets all the challenges with elegance and total commitment.

The Franco-Lithuanian pianist MŪZA Rubackytė lives between Vilnius, Paris and Geneva.
After studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, she won the All Union Competition in St Petersburg. In 1981 she won the Grand Prize at the Budapest Liszt-Bartok International Piano Competition. A resistance fighter in Lithuania, she was unable to leave the USSR until 1989. In Paris she won First Prize for Piano at the International Competition Les Grands Maîtres Français of the Triptyque Association, founded by Ravel, Dukas and Roussel.  
                                         
In France, MŪZA has been a guest at renowned venues and festivals: Fêtes Romantiques-Nohant, Radio France-Montpellier, Musique en côte Basque, Festival Chopin in Paris, Orangerie de Bagatelle or Orangerie d'Auteuil, Château de Compiègne, Lisztomanias, Tons voisins... Gaveau, Champs Elysées, Unesco, Opéra Bastille, Capitole-Toulouse, ... A Lisztian to the core, she was one of the first to perform Liszt's complete Années de pèlerinage in three concerts on the same day, alone or in the company of renowned actors.

She performs throughout Europe and is received on five continents in prestigious venues: Gilmore Festival (USA), Wigmore Hall-London, Santiago-du-Chile Opera House, Grand Rex, Buenos Aires Opera House and Teatro Colon, Sodre-Montevideo, Victoria Hall-Geneva, Concertgebouw- Amsterdam, Cairo and Alexandria Opera Houses, Beethoven Haus-Bonn, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tchaikovski-Moscow Hall, in Beijing, Shanghai, New Zealand, Bermuda, Japan, Africa and South America, ... In 2024 she was artist-in-residence at the Gilmore Piano Festival (USA).

She performs under the direction of internationally renowned conductors such as: Gergiev, Kogan, Kachidze, Jordania, Lano, Bay, Schermerhorn, Zimmermann, Segal, Slatkin, Nelson, Davis, Haendel, Fedoseyev,... and is accompanied by the orchestras of Lausanne, Teatro Colon, Santiago Opera, Auckland National, Russian State, Capitole de Toulouse, Garde Républicaine, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and those of Bretagne, Auvergne, Douai, Lorraine...in the USA, with the orchestras of Newport, Portland, Houston, Nashville, North Carolina, Canton, Austin, Virginia, Detroit, San Juan, or Washington, ...

In 2012 she performed Penderecki's Resurrection concerto for piano and orchestra in Puerto Rico as a tribute to the victims of 11 September 2001, which was repeated in 2013 as the opening concert of the Vilnius Piano Festival, and then for the Master's 80th and 85th birthday anniversaries at the Warsaw Philharmonic.

MŪZA is regularly invited to sit on the juries of international competitions: the Liszt Competition in Utrecht and Weimar, the Venice Piano Competition, the Unisa Piano Competition in Pretoria, the Minsk Piano Competition, the Vilnius Piano Competition, etc. In 2022, she will chair the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians.

A university professor at the Lithuanian National Academy of Music, she devotes a great deal of time to teaching and gives numerous master classes around the world, notably at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and Weimar.

In Lithuania, the President of the Republic has awarded her the Légion d'Honneur and a number of distinctions for her commitment to independence and as a cultural ambassador. In 2018 she was awarded the Grand Commander's Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great by the President for services to the Lithuanian state. In 2009, Mūza founded the Vilnius International Piano Festival, of which she is artistic director. For this achievement, the City of Vilnius honoured her with its highest award: the Saint Christopher for best cultural event.

In Hungary, she received two distinctions for her work with Franz Liszt: the Ministry of Culture awarded her the Pro Cultura Hungarica prize, and in 2024 the President of the Republic awarded her the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit for the LISZtuania Society she set up in Lithuania. MŪZA, who does not shy away from any challenge, enjoys performing complete works: The Pilgrimage Years in Bayreuth or at the Liszt Festival in Raiding, Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Liszt's 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante at the Radio France Montpellier Festival...

In 2020/22 Mūza will be paying tribute, both on stage and on record, to its compatriot the pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth near Vilnius. In the twentieth century, many "Litvaks" (Lithuanian Jews) went into exile, like Godowsky, who died in New York in 1938.

Mūza's repertoire spans more than forty programmes in recital, concerto with orchestra and chamber music.
Her discography of over thirty-five titles is regularly expanded: Années de Pèlerinage and Etudes de Concert by Liszt (Lyrinx), 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich (Brilliant Classics), concertos for piano and orchestra by Beethoven, Liszt, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Saint-Saëns, Bartok, Liszt, Schubert/Liszt, Brahms for the Great Lithuanian live recordings series (Doron), Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 chamber version, works for solo piano by Louis Vierne (2015) then with string quartet and voice (2016, Brilliant Classics). Since 2017 she has recorded Julius Reubke's Sonatas for piano and organ with Olivier Vernet for the Ligia label, followed by a tribute to Shostakovich and Weinberg entitled Dramatic Russian Legacy with the Mettis Quartet. In 2020, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth near Vilnius, Mūza pays tribute to his compatriot Leopold Godowsky, both on stage and on record. This recording, which also includes Preludes by Karol Szymanowsky, has received numerous awards, including Télérama ffff, Diapason d'Or, Classica 5 *****. It was followed by a second volume for which the pianist invited Russian violinist Dmitri Makhtin to join her in a duo.

A true Liszt enthusiast, she won the 41st Grand Prix of the Budapest Liszt Society for her album De la valse à l'abîme Schubert / Liszt (Lyrinx).

2021 saw the publication of her autobiographical book Née sous un piano, a sensitive account of her life as an artist and committed woman (published by Ovadia).

In 2024, her film MŪZA (Fralita films) was nominated for a Silver Heron at the Litaunie Film Festival in the categories of Best Documentary, Best Screenplay and Best Sound.

In addition to her concerts around the world, she will be ambassadressing the music of her native country as part of La saison de la Lituanie en France 2024, from September to December, with the support of the French and Lithuanian Cultural Institutes. Recitals from the programme From the Baltic to the Adriatic, from Vilnius to Venice and screenings of the film will be held at ten venues across France.

Long bio updated on 13 June 2024 by CKSM

LEARN MORE ON: www.muza.fr