EuroLiszt Festival | “Gypsy or Franciscan”

October 17–18 brings a truly special occasion to Paliesius Manor: the inaugural international piano music festival, EuroLiszt Festival. This year’s theme is “Gypsy or Franciscan,” with artistic direction by Mūza Rubackytė.

The festival is dedicated to Franz Liszt, one of the most brilliant creators and personalities in European musical history. Throughout the event, Liszt will be revealed as a European humanist, a modernist, and a mediator of cultures—not simply a composer or a pianistic icon, but a figure who spent his life weaving together distinct cultures, nations, artistic movements, and spiritual ideas.

The festival’s artistic director is the world-renowned pianist Mūza Rubackytė, who for over three decades has consistently cultivated international projects that bind Lithuania to the broader European musical tradition. The deepest aim of her work is to build a bridge between Lithuania and Europe through the art of music.

Paliesius Manor was chosen for this festival with thoughtful intent. In the 19th century, European musical culture thrived in salons, manors, and aristocratic spaces—not merely as an act of performance, but as a shared social and spiritual experience. It was precisely in such intimate settings that Liszt performed during his touring “Glanzperiode,” playing for monarchs, high society, and the intellectual centers of Europe. Paliesius Manor allows us to revive this tradition—fostering a close bond between performer and listener, an atmosphere of intimate listening, and a true chamber perception of music. Through live, world-class international artistry, the festival also seeks to breathe life back into historic manors as sites of cultural heritage, restoring a tradition lost during the Soviet era.

Mūza Rubackytė is a Lithuanian pianist, born in Lithuania and currently residing in Paris, Vilnius, and Geneva. At the age of seven, she made her debut at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. She graduated from the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and studied at the Lithuanian Conservatory (now LMTA). After becoming a laureate of the All-Union Competition and winning the prestigious Liszt-Bartók Piano Competition in Budapest (1981), she became the first Lithuanian pianist in a long time to achieve international acclaim. Having lost the trust of the Soviet authorities, she was deprived of her passport and the opportunity to perform abroad for seven years; however, immediately upon regaining her freedom, she pursued further studies in Paris, earned a diploma from the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and became a laureate of the Les Grands Maîtres Français international competition.

Today, she performs on every continent, appearing in prestigious venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Buenos Aires’s Teatro Colón, Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal, and Tokyo’s Casals Hall, as well as in more distant locales like Morocco, Malaysia, Singapore, Mozambique, and Puerto Rico. She collaborates with renowned orchestras across Europe, the US, South America, and Asia. Mūza Rubackytė performs with many top-tier US orchestras and collaborates with the Santiago Teatro Municipal, Buenos Aires Teatro Colón, the symphony orchestras of Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Lausanne, alongside various French ensembles. She frequently receives attention from prominent radio stations, including Radio Suisse Romande and Radio France.

At distinguished festivals, she has performed F. Liszt’s complete Années de pèlerinage cycle and his Transcendental Études, while at the Montpellier Festival she performed D. Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. The composer K. Penderecki regularly invited the pianist to perform his piano concerto Resurrection, dedicated to the memory of the September 11th victims.

The pianist’s repertoire consists of more than 40 programs, and her discography includes over 30 CDs, which have garnered international awards including the Grand Prix of the Hungarian Liszt Society, the Diapason d’Or, and recognition from BBC Music Magazine.

M. Rubackytė is a distinguished pedagogue, a long-time professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, an instructor of international masterclasses, and a jury member for prestigious competitions. In 2022, she served as the jury chair for the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians, and in 2024, she was the artist-in-residence at The Gilmore Foundation.

M. Rubackytė is the founder and artistic director of the biennial Vilnius Piano Festival, established in 2009 to tremendous international acclaim, featuring winners of prestigious competitions and world premieres. In 2017, on her initiative, the national Lisztofonija competition was founded, encouraging pianists to deepen their knowledge of Liszt. She is also the president of the Liszt association LISZTuania in Lithuania, and her contributions are highly significant as an ambassador for events including the 150th anniversary of M. K. Čiurlionis’s birth (2025), the Lithuanian Season in France (2024), the Centenary of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania (2018), and Vilnius – European Capital of Culture (2009).

She is a laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts (2006) and has been decorated with state orders and medals. The pianist has been honored with the LT Identity (2006) and Lithuanian Woman of the Year (2014) titles, and she was the first to receive the Lithuanian National Philharmonic’s award, the “I Serve Music” badge of honor (2021). In 2012, she was awarded the Pro Hungarica prize by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture, and in 2024, she was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary for her contributions to Hungarian culture.

In 2020, her autobiographical book Née sous un piano (“Born Under a Piano”) was published, and in 2024, the creative documentary film Mūza premiered, receiving three nominations at the Silver Crane (Sidabrinė Gervė) awards.

János Balázs (b. 1988 in Budapest) is an acclaimed Hungarian pianist who has earned international recognition. He studied music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he now serves as an associate professor, actively nurturing the younger generation of pianists.

The musician has been honored with significant awards: among others, in 2019 he received the prestigious Kossuth Prize, the Franz Liszt Prize, the Young Steinway Artist title, the Prima and Gramofon awards, and the music award from the Hungarian Academy of Arts. In 2023, the pianist became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.

János Balázs has won numerous international competitions, including first place at the Music International Grand Prix in New York (for the album ImprovisArt), as well as prize-winning placements in major competitions across Europe, the US, and Asia.

The pianist performs in the world’s most prestigious halls: Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Paris’s Cité de la Musique, London’s Barbican Centre, the Cologne Philharmonic, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música, Bogota’s Teatro Colón, and beyond. He collaborates with renowned conductors and soloists, including Mischa Maisky, Tamás Vásáry, and Vadim Repin, as well as ensembles such as the Brussels Philharmonic, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

In addition to his active concert schedule, the pianist dedicates considerable focus to pedagogy: he teaches classical piano, conducts masterclasses in Canada, China, Belgium, Italy, and Croatia, and participates in talent development programs as well as juries for international competitions.

Thomas Kelly is a British pianist distinguished by his mature interpretation of Franz Liszt and Romantic piano music. He studied at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and the Royal College of Music in London. At the latter, he is a Benjamin Britten Fellow—a recipient of one of the institution’s highest honors.

He actively performs in the United Kingdom and across Europe, taking part in international competitions and festivals. For 2026, he became a finalist (one of three) for the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht. The musician also reached the finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021, won second prize at the Hastings International Piano Competition in 2022, and became a laureate of competitions such as Pianale International, Kharkiv Assemblies, Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto, and the Theodor Leschetizky Competition. In 2024, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rose Bowl.

Simonas Miknius is a Lithuanian pianist of the younger generation and the winner of the Lisztofonija V competition. He began playing the piano at the age of seven. He graduated from the J. Gruodis Conservatory in Kaunas and is currently continuing his studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has performed with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, the Vytautas Magnus University Chamber Orchestra, and other ensembles. His repertoire spans Baroque, Romantic, and contemporary piano music, with a special emphasis on the works of Franz Liszt.

The pianist has won second place and a special prize at the International F. Chopin Youth Competition in Poland, the Grand Prix at the Music Without Borders competition in Lithuania, third place at the César Franck Competition in Brussels, and first place at La Note Céleste in Paris.

The VU Joint Choir is a combined ensemble composed of singers from three Vilnius University choirs: Gaudeamus, Virgo, and Pro musica.

The VU choirs are renowned both for their individual achievements and for joint programs and projects such as CLASSICS FOR ALL, where the choirs present large-scale works alongside orchestras and soloists. All three VU choirs have been named laureates in numerous international competitions and are recognized as some of Lithuania’s strongest choral ensembles. The choirs participate in festivals worldwide, having performed in celebrated European concert halls and sung for audiences in the US, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Japan. The VU Joint Choir performed F. Liszt’s Via crucis in France alongside Mūza Rubackytė—a concert that was met with tremendous success.

The VU Joint Choir is led by conductor Rasa Gelgotienė, the artistic director and chief conductor of the Vilnius University choir Pro musica. Even while still studying, R. Gelgotienė worked as a concertmaster at the Lithuanian State Conservatory, and later as the choirmaster for the Lithuanian Radio and Television Children’s Choir.

She currently directs the other two Vilnius University choirs as well—the female choir Virgo and the academic choir Gaudeamus.

With these three choirs, R. Gelgotienė has achieved great success, winning prize-winning placements in over 30 international and national competitions and participating in more than 50 international festivals. Her choirs have been heard by audiences in over 25 European countries, as well as in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, and Japan.

R. Gelgotienė is also a presidium member of the Lithuanian Choral Union, a member of the creative groups for the Lithuanian Song Festivals, a conductor for the Lithuanian World Song Festivals and the Baltic Students’ Song Festivals “Gaudeamus,” and an expert-consultant for choirs in the Alytus County.