Van Cliburn
American pianist Van Cliburn died in his home in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 27, 2013. The cause of death was bone cancer. Van Cliburn was 78 years old (born July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana). He is survived by his friend of long standing, Thomas L. Smith. Van Cliburn is considered being an American hero. He was hailed as one of the most persuasive ambassadors of American culture, as well as one of the greatest pianists in the history of music. With his historic 1958 victory at the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War, Van Cliburn tore down cultural barriers years ahead of glasnost and perestroika, transcending politics by demonstrating the universality of classical music.
Returning home from Moscow, Mr. Cliburn received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time a classical musician was ever honored with the highest tribute possible by the City of New York. Upon Mr. Cliburn’s invitation, Kiril Kondrashin, the conductor with whom the pianist had played his prizewinning performances, came from Moscow to repeat the celebrated concert program with Van Cliburn at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and in Washington, D.C. Their recording of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, made during Kondrashin’s visit, was the first classical recording ever to be awarded a platinum record and has now sold well over three million copies.
Following his triumph in Moscow, Mr. Cliburn played in several cities in the Soviet Union. From that time on, he toured widely and frequently with every important orchestra and conductor, in the most renowned international concert halls. Mr. Cliburn toured the Soviet Union many times between 1960 and 1972 for extended periods.
Carnegie Hall requested that he play for its 100th anniversary season as soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Over the years, Mr. Cliburn opened many U.S. concert halls, including the famous I. M. Pei Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas; Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth; the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska; and the Bob Hope Cultural Center in Palm Springs, California.
He made numerous recordings, including many major piano concerti and a wide variety of solo repertoire.
Early in his career, a group of friends and admirers began the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition as a living legacy to Mr. Cliburn’s constant efforts to aid the development of young artists. The first competition was held in 1962. The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano, taking place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall, is dedicated to the memory of Van Cliburn.
Van Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on July 12, 1934. At the age of 3, he began piano studies with his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, a talented student of Arthur Friedheim, who was a pupil of Franz Liszt. He was 12 when he made his orchestral debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. After graduating from Kilgore High School in the spring of 1951, we went on to study with Madame Rosina Lhevinne at the famed Juilliard School in New York City.
Prior to his win at the Tchaikovsky Competition, Van Cliburn won the Levintritt Competition in 1954, which had not awarded a first-place prize since 1949. The prestigious Levintritt Competition offered important appearances with such major orchestras as Cleveland, Denver, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh, as well as a coveted New York Philharmonic debut with the great Dimitri Mitropoulos, which took place in Carnegie Hall on November 14, 1954.
