Van Cliburn

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Van Cliburn
Cliburn with Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, 1958
Background information
Birth name	Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr.
Born	July 12, 1934 (age 72) Shreveport, Louisiana, United States
Genre(s)	Classical
Occupation(s)	Pianist
Instrument(s)	Piano
Label(s)	RCA

Van Cliburn (b. Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr., July 12, 1934), is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, when at age 23, he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.

1 Early years
2 The Tchaikovsky Competition
3 Cliburn today
4 External links

[edit] Early years

Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, Rildia Bee O'Bryan (who had been taught by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt). When Cliburn was six, he and his family moved to Kilgore, Texas, and at twelve he won a statewide piano competition which enabled him to debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17, and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romanticists. At age 20, Cliburn won the prestigious Levintritt Award, and made his Carnegie Hall debut.

[edit] The Tchaikovsky Competition

But it was his recognition in Moscow which propelled him to international fame. The First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of their technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's luminous virtuosity in his competition finale performances of the Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him a standing ovation which lasted a full eight minutes. The Soviet judges were compelled to ask Premier Nikita Khrushchev for permission to give the first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked them. "Then give him the prize!" Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time that honour has been accorded a classical musician. TIME put him on their cover, proclaiming him as "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." RCA Victor signed him to an exclusive contract, and his subsequent recording of the Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 became the first classical album to sell a million copies. It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade, eventually going triple-platinum. Cliburn won the 1958 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance for this recording.

Other famous concerti Van Cliburn has recorded include the Grieg: Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 and No. 5 (Emperor), and the Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3.

In 1962, Cliburn became the artistic advisor for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The competition was founded by a group of Fort Worth, Texas music teachers and volunteers, and its prestige now rivals that of the Tchaikovsky Competition.

[edit] Cliburn today

Cliburn performed and recorded through the 1970s, but in 1978, after the deaths of his father and manager, began a hiatus from public life. In 1987, he was invited to perform at the White House for President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and afterwards was invited to open the 100th anniversary season of Carnegie Hall. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush, and, in October of 2004, the Russian Order of Friendship, the two highest civilian awards of the two countries. He was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. Now over 70, he still gives a limited number of performances every year, to critical and popular acclaim. He has played for royalty, heads of state from dozens of countries, and for every President of the United States since Harry Truman. Cliburn currently resides in the Fort Worth suburb of Westover Hills.