True victory, says pianist Mūza Rubackytė, is the ability to get up and keep going — something she learned early, when intrigue challenged her mastery.

She describes her path as a musician as “rocky”: talent noticed at a young age, first concert at only two years old in Palanga; a mother who sacrificed her own dreams so her daughter could live through music; a father whose longing became a source of creative drive; and a powerful matriarchy — mother, aunt, grandmother — inspiring strength and optimism. Her childhood books were only about heroes: Mozart, Schubert, military leaders, Napoleon. “I only read about heroes. And I knew — for something extraordinary to happen, you need the right charge.”

She needed that charge throughout her career, which was a constant struggle for existence: harsh living conditions, political obstacles, seven years in “uncertainty,” performing wherever possible while living in hotels with cockroaches. But there were also great stages and victories that reinforced her belief: talent is only the beginning; endurance creates everything else.

Paris, where Mūza went not for career glamour but for the hunger for knowledge, opened new opportunities — discovering French music, deepening mastery, and rethinking her connection to Franz Liszt and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. The stage became a place where the ultimate judge is the composer: “Not to disappoint the genius” — this is what matters most to Mūza when performing.

In the podcast Beyond Economics and Back, LFMI president Elena Leontjeva speaks with Mūza Rubackytė about the heights that can only be reached by walking a rocky path.