MŪZA RUBACKYTĖ (LTU)
Mūza Rubackytė was born in Lithuania, and shares her time between Vilnius, Paris and Geneva.
After diplomas at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow, she was a prizewinner at the All Union Competition in St. Petersburg. In 1981 she won the Grand Prize at the Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition in Budapest. A member of the Lithuanian resistance, she was only able to leave the USSR in 1989. In Paris she won First Prize in the Concours international Les Grands Maîtres Français.
She is often invited to participate in prestigious festivals and theatres, from the Salle Gaveau in Paris to the Santiago Opera in Chile, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bastille Opera in Paris, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, North America where she plays with Class A orchestras, Beijing, Auckland and Pretoria, performing on all five continents.
To celebrate the 2011 bicentenary anniversary of Liszt, the International Committee invited her to become a member. In 2012, the Hungarian Ministry of Culture awarded her the “Pro Cultura Hungarica” prize for her promotion of Liszt’s legacy.
In Lithuania, the President of the Republic awarded her the Legion of Honour for her actions for independence and several decorations for her commitment as a cultural ambassador.
Her discography of some 30 titles includes the complete Years of Pilgrimage by Liszt (Lyrinx), 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich (Brilliant Classics) and “10 concertos pour piano et orchestra” of Beethoven, Liszt, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Saint-Saëns, and “Great Lithuanian live recordings” (Doron). Her latest recordings are devoted to works for solo piano, songs accompanied with piano quintet and the piano quintet by Louis Vierne with Brilliant Classics. She releases sonatas for piano and organ by Julius Reubke with Olivier Vernet (Ligia), and “De la Valse à l’Abîme” by Schubert and Liszt with Lyrinx.