Van Cliburn Competition

Each competetor will play one recital in the preliminary round starting May 22. Twelve semifinalists will be chosen to play a second recital and a performance with the Takacs Quartet. Then, six finalists will be chosen to perform a third recital and two concerti with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

A jury composed of 11 distinguished musicians, teachers and other industry professionals, led by jury chairman John Giordano, former music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

The Cliburn winner receives a gold medal, silver trophy cup, $20,000 cash, international concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons, a CD recording and air travel during the three-year tour.

Second and third place receive a silver medal and crystal trophy, respectively, plus $20,000 cash, U.S. concert tours and career management for three concert seasons, and a CD recording.

The non-medaling finalists receive three years of managed concert tours and $10,000.

To watch the Van Cliburn competition webcast go to the following link.


http://www.cliburn.tv/

Competition is in full swing. To watch the competitors or read their bios, go to the following link.



http://www.cliburn.tv/

The jurors for the competition are as follows:

Marcello Abbado, former director of the Milan Conservatory and founder of the Symphonic Orchestra Verdi in Milan

Dmitri Alexeev, internationally acclaimed pianist and the first Russian artist to become the first-prize winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition (1975)

Michel Beroff, pianist and faculty member of the Paris Conservatoire, he is credited with more than fifty recordings and is establishing a career as a conductor

Hung-Kuan Chen, chairman of the Shanghai Conservatory piano department and director of its International Piano Academy, is a gold medal winner of both the Arthur Rubinstein and Busoni Competitions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991

Richard Dyer, writer, lecturer, former chief music critic for the Boston Globe for thirty-three years, and two-time recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for distinguished music criticism

John Giordano, Chairman*, jury chairman for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1973, former music director of the Fort Worth Symphony and Chamber Orchestras for twenty-seven years, music director of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra

Joseph Kalichstein, the first chamber music adviser to the Kennedy Center and a founding member of the acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

Yoheved Kaplinsky, chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York, as well as professor of piano at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth

Jürgen Meyer-Josten, former head of music of Bavarian Radio in Munich for more than two decades, and director of the International Music Competition of the Broadcasting Companies of Germany in Munich since 1967

Menahem Pressler, pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio

Tadeusz Strugala, prominent Polish conductor, professor at the Krakow Music Academy, and guest conductor of orchestras in Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna



The 12 finalists were announced Tuesday night. They are:



Evgeni Bozhanov, Ran Dank, Alessandro Deljavan, Kyu Yeon Kim, Eduard Kunz, Andrea Lam, Michail Lifits, Yeol Eum Son, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Mariangela Vacatello, Di Wu and Haochen Zhang.



Thursday they will perform a one hour solo recital and a performance with the Takács Quartet. Good luck to the finalists and congratulations!

The six finalists were announced Sunday night. They are:


Evgeni Bozhanov, Bulgaria, 25

Yeol Eum Son, Korea, 23

Nobuyuki Tsujii, Japan, 20

Mariangela Vacatello, Italy, 27

Di Wu, China, 24

Haochen Zhang, China, 18



First Prize
•Gold Medal
•Cash Award of $20,000
•Silver trophy cup
•International concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition
•CD recording

Second Prize
•Silver Medal
•Cash Award of $20,000
•U.S. concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition
•CD recording

Third Prize
•Bronze Medal
•Cash Award of $20,000
•U.S. concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition
•CD recording

Finalists (Non-Medalists)
•Cash Award of $10,000 each
•U.S. concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition

Each of the finalists will perform a 50 minute solo recital and two concerti. The winners will be announced Sunday night (June 7).

The finals are underway, each finalist performs a 50 minute solo recital and two concerti. Last night Di Wu of China, Evgeni Bozhanov from Bulgaria and Mariangela Vacatello from Italy performed. Tonight Yeol Eum Son, Nobuyuki Tsujii, and Haochen Zhang perform. Again, here is the link to watch performances on.


http://www.cliburn.tv/client.aspx

The live webcast of the Cliburn Competition is being world-wide viewed, here are how many are watching:


The Cliburn 2009 webcast has recorded 45,210 "absolute unique visitors" from 121 different countries. There also have been 591,444 "Plays" (hits to the live and archived program streams).


If you haven't watched it, I would strongly urge you to do so, excellent coverage!

Tonight Evgeni Bozhanov (recital), Yeol Eum Son, and Mariangela Vacatello perform. beginning at 7:30 CST.

Concerts at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m CST. will feature Nobuyuki Tsujii, Evgeni Bozhanov, Yeol Eum Son and Mariangela Vacatello performing Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev concerti, as well as Haochen Zhang and Di Wu will present their last recitals.

Nobuyuki Tsujii takes the stage first on the last day of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He opens with Beethoven's challenging "Appassionata" Sonata in F minor, Op. 57. Following that, plays Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto.
The final performer of Cliburn 2009, Di Wu will perform Rachmaninoff's beloved Piano Concerto No. 3.

The U.S. recital debut of the 2009 Cliburn gold medalist will be July 23 at the Aspen Music Festival.

The winners will be announced at 5:00 p.m. (CDT) during the Awards Ceremony. Good luck to all!

The 13th Van Cliburn International Competition has concluded, and for me personally, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute broadcast on the webcast. In my opinion, they did an excellent job broadcasting the competition, making the viewer almost feel as if they were there in person. I've had the distinct honor of seeing Van Cliburn perform in person three times, and I will never forget it. He has not only brought to music a great sense of appreciation and depth into the world of Classical music but educationally and politically as well by winning the first Tschaikowsky competition in 1958 in Russia during a time of political turmoil.


As was stated several times throughout the competition, by jurors, Maestro James Conlon (conductor), and Van Cliburn himself we must encourage and emphasize the arts in school to our young people (especially Classical music). As time goes on, generations pass on, if today's young generation isn't taught/exposed to the arts, sadly it will become a dying breed with only sheet music as a rememberance of our great predecisors. The Mozart operas, Beethoven Symphonies, Chopin Piano Music - all will just be kept tucked away, not performed or enjoyed for years to come.


Two gold medals were awarded to Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan and Haochen Zhang of China. Yeol Eum Son of South Korea won the second-prize silver medal. No third-place crystal medal was awarded.


Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria, Mariangela Vacatello of Italy and Di Wu of China each received a finalists award.


Discretionary awards of $4,000 each went to Lukas Vondracek of the Czech Republic, Alessandro Deljavan of Italy and Eduard Kunz of Russia. The $5,000 award for best performance of a new work went to Tsujii, who played John Musto’s Improvisation & Fugue. The $6,000 award for best performance of chamber music was split between Bozhanov, who played Franck’s Piano Quintet, and Son, who played Brahms’ Piano Quintet.


Each gold medalist receives $20,000 in cash, international concert tours and career management for three seasons, a CD recording, and help with air-travel costs. Son’s silver-medal award includes $20,000 cash, three seasons of U.S. concert tours and career management, and a CD. Each of the other finalists receives $10,000 in cash and three seasons of U.S. tours and concert management. Congratulations to all! I would like to see feedback regarding the competition/winners here on the forum. If you aren't registered, please do so to post about the competition.


Should Mr. Cliburn or someone who knows him personally read this forum, I would like it to be known that I have the highest admiration for him, not only in his playing but what his competition has offered to so many since 1962. You have truly helped path the way to wonderful music careers for so many and are an inspiration to pianists the world over.

Saturday, June 13 at 8:00 p.m., Matt Erikson will tell the story of this year's epoch-making competition in a special two-hour documentary: The Cliburn 2009: Pursuit of Excellence.

The broadcast will feature performances, as well as interviews with competitors, former gold medalists, volunteers, music journalists, audience members, and Van Cliburn. Listen to the show at www.wrr101.com.

Most of the material that was webcast live during the competition remains archived at www.cliburn.tv. You will also find highlights from competition performances at YouTube. The Cliburn YouTube Channel has been so popular that it ranked No. 18 this week among most viewed music channels.

Since winning the Cliburn competition, Nobuyuki Tsujii's albums have raced up in ranks on the Japanese charts. Here's a link to an article discussing that.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iSlMR4iWtIGjkkfSqwB9Q487T2Pg

The 2009 Competition made history, offering Internet access and allowing more than 100,000 people from nearly 200 countries to experience the two-week event.