A distinguished teacher of piano and piano duets and professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Kęstutis Grybauskas has formed an ensemble of four pianists, which is quite a rare phenomenon on the world music scene. As the founder of the first concert piano duo in Lithuania, which came into being five decades ago and in which he played with his wife Liuda Grybauskienė, he has greatly contributed to the promotion of the genre of piano ensemble in our country.
One of the most enchanting and fascinating elements in ensemble music-making is the ability to combine the performers’ mutual musical understanding with individual artistic qualities of each member of an ensemble. This is very much characteristic of the piano quartet led by Kęstutis Grybauskas, which also includes Vilma Rindzevičiūtė, Giedrė Gabnytė and Vida Badaitienė, who all, following the example of the maestro, have become experienced specialists in the field of piano ensemble and laureates of international piano ensemble competitions.
The Kęstutis Grybauskas Piano Quartet regularly performs in Lithuania and abroad. They have given over 200 concerts in Lithuania and abroad, including appearances at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the Wagner Hall and the Ave Sol Hall in Riga, the University of Arts in Graz, the Haden Freeman Hall of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and in Belgium, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and Germany.
The quartet has participated in many festivals, including the 25th Klaipėda Spring of Music (2000), the Grieg and Čiurlionis Music Festival in Kaunas (2001), the St Christopher Summer Festival (2001), the 8th Pažaislis Music Festival (2203), the 5th and 6th International Piano Duo Festival in Šiauliai (2003, 2005), the North Lithuanian Music Festival in Biržai (2004), the 2nd Tytuvėnai International Summer Festival (2005), and the Donzdorf Chamber Music Festival in Germany (2005). They have appeared in the series of concerts “The fantasy and charm of non-traditional ensembles” at Vilnius’ Town Hall and the Great Parade of Musicians (1998, 2000, 2004) at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall.
The quartet has made recordings for Lithuanian Radio and Television. Their concerts in England, Austria, Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland, Hungary and Germany have received excellent press and acclaim from the audiences.

Kęstutis Grybauskas was born on 30 May 1932 in Kaunas. His first music teacher was his mother Eugenija Grybauskienė, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatoire, and later he was taught by a number of outstanding piano teachers, including Aldona Dvarionienė, Marija Alšlebėnaitė and E. Herbek-Hansen. In 1956, he graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire, where he studied under Professor Stasys Vainiūnas. After graduation in 1956 he was engaged as an accompanist at the Lithuanian State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he worked until 1960, when he began teaching at the Juozas Tallat-Kelpša Higher School of Music, and later, in 1962, at the Lithuanian State Conservatoire (at present Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre). From 1973 to 1987, he was the head of the Piano Department and was conferred the title of professor in 1983. From 1983 to 1994, he served as Vice-rector for studies. From 1997 to 2005, he headed the Piano Department at the Kaunas Faculty of the Academy. In 1998, he was elected Chair of the Senate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He is a member of the Board of the Lithuanian Musicians Union. Since 1991, he has been President of the Lithuanian Branch of the European Piano Teachers’ Association and Vice-president of the European Piano Teachers’ Association.
In 1961, Grybauskas formed a piano duo together with his wife Liuda Grybauskienė. The Grybauskas Piano Duo gave over 500 concerts in Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. They performed with the Lithuanian National Symphony and the Lithuanian Chamber orchestras, under the direction of Juozas Domarkas, Saulius Sondeckis, Eri Klass, Jonas Aleksa, Margarita Dvarionaitė and Gintaras Rinkevičius. In 1991, Grybauskas formed a trio and a quartet of pianists.
Kęstutis Grybauskas has premièred a great deal of Lithuanian music for piano and two pianos four, six and eight hands. He has recorded five CDs and a retrospective CD of the Grybauskas Piano Duo. In 2006, he recorded a CD called “Piano Duo – Piano Trio”, containing compositions for piano six hands. He has made many recordings for Lithuanian National Radio and Television.
Professor Grybauskas has taught the piano, piano duets and accompaniment to over 100 students, including now-famous Lithuanian and foreign teachers and performers, winners of international competitions and recipients of the Lithuanian National Arts and Culture Prize. He regularly leads master classes for pianists and piano duos both in Lithuania and abroad.
In 1982, a seminar/practicum for piano teachers was first held in Lithuania on the initiative of Kęstutis Grybauskas. Taking place every year in one of five Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys), the event is already in its 25th year.
In 1997, on the initiative of Grybauskas, the International Competition for Piano Duos, a brand new competition in Lithuania, took place. Held every second year in Kaunas, it became a full member of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY) in 2004. Grybauskas has been the chair and a member of the panel of judges at many international competitions in Lithuania and abroad.
Professor Grybauskas has published a number of scholarly and methodological articles and a book; has compiled, edited and published three compilations of methodological articles; has participated in many scholarly and methodological conferences and has edited and published a number of books of abstracts from the conferences. He has published two compilations of his own transcriptions for piano duo. In 2005 – 2006, he prepared for publication another three compilations of his own transcriptions for one and two pianos six and eight hands.
In 2006, Kęstutis Grybauskas was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

Vilma Rindzevičiūtė studied the piano and piano duets with Professor Kęstutis Grybauskas at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, from which she graduated in 1999 with a Master’s degree. A laureate of several international piano duo competitions in Lithuania (1997), England (1998) and Belgium (1999), she has performed with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckis and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gintaras Rinkevičius. With the Čiurlionis String Quartet and the Kaunas String Quartet, she has given the Lithuanian premières of Jadassohn’s and Fetis’ sextets for piano duo and string quartet.
In 1997, Rindzevičiūtė formed a trio of soprano, flute and piano, called Grazioso, with which she has given concerts all around Lithuania and in Denmark, and has performed in a number of international festivals, such as the Druskininkai Summer with Čiurlionis, where in 2007 they gave the world première of Giedrius Kuprevičius’ Echo – Aidas for soprano, flute and piano.
Since 1999, Rindzevičiūtė has taught the piano duets at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and the piano at the Vilnius Algirdas Music School. Her piano duet students successfully appear and often win awards at international piano duo competitions. In 2005, she led a master class for piano duos at the Stuttgart College of Music and Performing Arts.
In 2006, Rindzevičiūtė recorded two CDs: “Piano Duo – Piano Trio”, containing piano music for four and six hands, and “Trio Grazioso”, featuring 18th- and 19th-century compositions for soprano, flute and piano.

Born in 1974 in Vilnius, Giedrė Gabnytė studied the piano with Professor Halina Radvilaitė and chamber ensemble with Professor Audronė Vainiūnaitė at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, from which she graduated in 1999 with a Master’s degree. Later she took courses at Salzburg’s Mozarteum, where she studied under Professor Losonczy.
Gabnytė is a laureate of an international piano competition in Rome. In 2003, she was awarded the Grand Prix at the Music without Limits International Piano Duo Competition/Festival in Druskininkai. In 2005, she participated in the 15th Festival of International Competition Winners in Poland and in the Druskininkai Summer with Čiurlionis festival, performing, together with the Čiurlionis String Quartet, Jurgis Juozapaitis’ Spring Bells for piano duo and string quartet. In 2006, she was a prizewinner at the 5th International Piano Duo Competition in Kaunas, where she was awarded a prize for the best interpretation of Giedrius Kuprevičius’ Concerto for two pianos and orchestra. She has performed with the Lithuanian National Symphony and the Kaunas City Symphony orchestras, and has given concerts in Poland, Finland and Austria. At present, she works at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Vida Badaitienė (b. 1979) studied the piano with Professor Kęstutis Grybauskas at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, from which she graduated in 2005 with a Master’s degree. In 2004, she attended master classes in piano duets, led by Professor Hans-Peter Stenzl (Germany). In 2002, she was awarded the Grand Prix at the Music without Limits International Competition/Festival in Druskininkai. She has twice been a prizewinner at the International Piano Duo Competition in Kaunas (2002, 2004).
At present, she teaches at the Nemenčinė School of Music.

International EPTA conference in Budapest was crowned by inimitable Kestutis Grybauskas Pianists‘ Qaurtet without whom no EPTA conference would be complete and whose grace and synchrony of movement go far to prove, that the shape of a phrase is communicated as much plastically as aurally.

Malcom Troup, Piano Journal Nr. 63, London, 2000

Die Pianistinnen demonstrierten auf unspektakuläre Art eine wunderbare Synthese aus Klarheit und Wärme: Klarheit in der Zeichnung der Binnenstruktur wie der formalen Gliederung im Grossen; Wärme im Farbenreichtum der Anschlagspalette wie auch darin, wie sie es verstehen, die einzelnen Phrasen unaufdringlich atmen und ausschwingen zu lassen.

Christina Schubert, NWZ – GP, Donzdorf, 2005 12 14