The 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a 50th Anniversary

 

Starting May 22, all performances will be streamed live eleven hours per day and then archived for “on-demand” viewing.

http://www.cliburn.tv/

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Van Cliburn was only twenty-three when he won in Moscow on April 14, 1958, at the height of the Cold War.
Upon his return to the United States, the young pianist received a hero’s welcome in New York City with a ticker-tape parade. This was the first and only time the city gave such an honor to a classical musician.
On that historic day, Van Cliburn became both cultural hero and unofficial diplomat. He went on to perform before every U.S. president from 1958 until today; the most famous of these concerts occurred in 1987 when he played for Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House. This occassion is now remembered as “the day the Cold War was lost.”

Historic video coverage featuring Van Cliburn:

 

 

The 2009 Competition

Twenty-nine pianists will compete in the Preliminary Round; twelve will compete in the Semifinal Round; and six will vie for top honors in the Final Round. All six finalists will receive a prize package offering three years of managed concert tours at over $1,000,000 total value.
Cliburn winners perform in hundreds of venues across the United States and abroad.

The 2009 Competitors

Past Top prize winners

Winners of the top prize awarded in the given year (first prize, unless otherwise noted):

2005 — Alexander Kobrin
2001 — Stanislav Ioudenitch and Olga Kern (tied)
1997 — Jon Nakamatsu
1993 — Simone Pedroni
1989 — Alexei Sultanov
1985 — Jose Feghali
1981 — Andre-Michel Schub
1977 — Steven DeGroote
1973 — Vladimir Viardo
1969 — Cristina Ortiz
1966 — Radu Lupu
1962 — Ralph Votapek