Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The Cliburn
Founded1962; 62 years ago (1962)
TypeNon-governmental organization
FocusPiano competition
Location
Websitecliburn.org

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (The Cliburn) is an American piano competition by The Cliburn, first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas and hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. Initially held at Texas Christian University, the competition has been held at the Bass Performance Hall since 2001. The competition is named in honour of Van Cliburn, who won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition, in 1958.[1][2]

The Van Cliburn Competition is held once every four years, in the year of United States presidential inaugurations.[3] The winners and runners-up receive substantial cash prizes, plus concert tours at world-famous venues where they are able to perform pieces of their choice.[4] While Cliburn was alive, he did not serve as a judge in the competition, provide financial support, or work in its operations.[5] However, he attended performances by competitors regularly and greeted them afterwards on occasion.[6]

Contestants draw lots for their performing place in the competition.[7] The competition began on-line audio streaming of the performances in 1997.[6] In 2009, the competition webcast all of the performances live for the first time in its history.[8]

Medalists[edit]

Year Gold Silver Bronze
1962 Ralph Votapek
 United States
Nikolai Petrov
 Soviet Union
Mikhail Voskresensky
 Soviet Union
1966 Radu Lupu
 Romania
Barry Lee Snyder
 United States
Blanca Uribe [es]
 Colombia
1969 Cristina Ortiz
 Brazil
Minoru Nojima
 Japan
Mark Westcott
 United States
1973 Vladimir Viardo
 Soviet Union
Christian Zacharias
 West Germany
Michael James Houstoun
 New Zealand
1977 Steven De Groote
 South Africa
Alexander Toradze
 Soviet Union
Jeffrey Swann
 United States
1981 Andre-Michel Schub
 France
Panayis Lyras
 United States
Santiago Rodriguez
 United States
not awarded
1985 José Feghali
 Brazil
Philippe Bianconi
 France
Barry Douglas
 United Kingdom
1989 Alexei Sultanov
 Soviet Union
José Carlos Cocarelli
 Brazil
Benedetto Lupo
 Italy
1993 Simone Pedroni
 Italy
Valery Kuleshov
 Russia
Christopher Taylor
 United States
1997 Jon Nakamatsu
 United States
Yakov Kasman
 Russia
Aviram Reichert
 Israel
2001 Stanislav Ioudenitch
 Uzbekistan
Olga Kern
 Russia
Maxim Philippov
 Russia
Antonio Pompa-Baldi
 Italy
not awarded
2005 Alexander Kobrin
 Russia
Joyce Yang
 South Korea
Sa Chen
 China
2009 Nobuyuki Tsujii
 Japan
Haochen Zhang
 China
Yeol Eum Son
 South Korea
not awarded
2013 Vadym Kholodenko
 Ukraine
Beatrice Rana
 Italy
Sean Chen
 United States
2017 Yekwon Sunwoo
 South Korea
Kenneth Broberg
 United States
Daniel Hsu
 United States
2022 Yunchan Lim
 South Korea
Anna Geniushene
 Russia
Dmytro Choni
 Ukraine

Amateur and Junior competitions[edit]

In 1999, the competition added an amateur edition, which allows high-performing pianists aged 35 or above to participate, provided that they do not earn their main source of income through piano pedagogy or performance. Amateur competitions have been held in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2011, and 2016. Originally, the 2016 Amateur Competition was to be held in 2015, but was canceled, due to the inauguration of a junior version of the Cliburn Competition, which attracts top-performing teenage piano students from around the globe. Like the regular Cliburn Competition, the amateur and junior competitions consist of solo rounds, followed by concerto performances with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in the finals.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Anthony Tommasini (February 27, 2013). "Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy, Dies at 78". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  2. ^ "1962 Cliburn Competition – The Cliburn". www.cliburn.org. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  3. ^ Future competitions are scheduled thus for 2025, 2029, and so forth.
  4. ^ Bernard Holland (June 13, 1989). "After the Cliburn: A Career Still to Be Built". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  5. ^ Bernard Holland (March 27, 1989). "Van Cliburn: Man Behind the Contest". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  6. ^ a b Christopher Kelly (May 18, 2013). "With Cliburn Gone, Competition Tries to Adjust". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  7. ^ Bernard Holland (May 27, 2013). "Tensions on Eve of Cliburn Contest". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  8. ^ Benjamin Ivry (June 10, 2009). "What Was the Jury Thinking?". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 3, 2010.

References[edit]

Horowitz, Joseph (September 1990). The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1 ed.). Summit Books.

External links[edit]