Every four years, Fort Worth is in classical music’s international spotlight. That’s when the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition brings together 30 of the brightest young pianists for a grueling contest of solo recitals and concerto performances, for significant cash prizes and also — probably more important — career management and concert dates for the future. Video livestreams are avidly followed by pianists, teachers and artist managers around the world. Careers can get huge boosts. Or not.
One of the world’s highest visibility and most prestigious classical music competitions, the Cliburn will again energize Fort Worth for four rounds between May 21 and June 7. Contestants ages 18 to 30 hail from 15 countries, plus a couple listing dual residencies. Seven are from China, three each from the United States and Russia; one is from Turkey, another from Malaysia. (This year’s contest is only three years after the last Cliburn, which was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
“I always feel that every four years they run faster, like the Olympics,” says Jacques Marquis, president and CEO of the sponsoring Cliburn organization since 2013. “Today they can play everything. The young kids, they don’t make mistakes; they’re all about the music.
“And I think they have interesting personalities. That’s what we’re looking for — for commitment, for engagement. Everybody can play fast and loud, but not everybody has voicing and phrasing and the structure of the piece."
The competition’s awards include $100,000 for first prize, $50,000 for second and $25,000 for third. There are also cash prizes for best performance of the new work — this year by composer/pianist Gabriela Montero, who’s also on the jury — and a Mozart piano concerto, plus a jury discretionary award. And all competitors receive additional cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
This year’s Cliburn drew 350 applicants. In two rounds of preliminary screenings, based on résumés, recommendations and video recordings, 75 pianists were selected for in-person screening auditions March 16 to 22 at Texas Christian University’s PepsiCo Recital Hall. From these, 30 were picked to participate in the competition.
Having a single public screening audition in Fort Worth, as opposed to several in cities abroad as well as in the U.S., first happened in 2022, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What we realized was it was fun to bring 75 to 80 competitors here,” Marquis says, “to have the same piano, the same acoustic, to have the jury not with jet lag. Also to involve the community, and to talk about the competition.”
The schedule
In the preliminary round, starting May 21, each of the 30 competitors plays a 40-minute recital. Eighteen pianists then are selected for the quarterfinal round, each playing a different 40-minute recital program.
The semifinal round, with 12 competitors remaining, includes a 60-minute recital — again with no overlap from previous rounds — and performance of one of 10 Mozart piano concertos, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
In the final round, each of 12 finalists will perform two concertos with the FWSO, now conducted by Marin Alsop. One concerto is to be selected from a list of 18; choice of the other is up to the competitors, depending on approval by the Cliburn, the conductor and orchestra.
Video streams of this year’s competition will be available live and on demand at cliburn.org and the Cliburn’s YouTube channel. Video presentations will be hosted by Buddy Bray and Elizabeth Joy Roe, with commentary and behind-the-scenes interviews.
Who’s ‘the best’?
Classical music competitions in general have been criticized for rewarding absolute technical assurance and brilliance over subtler interpretive virtues. And the Cliburn, whose finalists will have survived three major solo recitals and three concertos with orchestra, is a real endurance contest.
How does a committee decide who is “the best”? It’s not like calculating the speed of an athlete’s run or the height of a jump or the number of touchdowns. What makes a performance magical depends as much on the hearer as the performer.
Marquis has made a point of keeping the Cliburn jury fresh with considerable turnover from one competition to another, but with a commitment to actively performing pianists. This year’s jury is chaired by the eminent English pianist Paul Lewis.
Of course, competition juries can only judge what they hear in a hothouse couple of weeks, with players under formidable pressure. They can guess at career prospects, but they’re not much better soothsayers than the rest of us watching and listening.
While most Cliburn winners have gone on to solid professional performance careers, few have become certifiable “stars” like the late Radu Lupu, who took the 1966 gold medal. A few, like 2001 co-gold medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch and the late José Feghali, the 1985 winner, eventually settled more into teaching. And early illness and deaths snuffed out what might have been greater careers for Steven De Groote (1977) and Alexei Sultanov (1989).
The Cliburn seems to have struck gold with its 2022 gold medalist, the South Korean Yunchan Lim. A mere 18 at the time, he performed Liszt’s legendarily difficult Transcendental Etudes with a sophistication of tone and timing almost unimaginable from one so young. His final round performance of the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto, with Alsop leading the Fort Worth Symphony, created an international sensation.
He’s gone on to bookings with major orchestras and in the most prestigious venues around the world. In Asia, especially, he has brought new attention to the Cliburn.
“The Cliburn is producing wine,” Marquis says, metaphorically, “and we never know how the wine will be. Sometimes we have an exceptional wine, and 2022 was a great vintage. I don’t know what we will get this time, but we try to make sure we get the best of the best here.”
The Van Cliburn connection
The competition is named for a pianist who became an overnight international celebrity in ways unimaginable for a classical musician today. Born in Shreveport, La., and raised from age 6 in Kilgore in East Texas, Van Cliburn had the most dramatic introduction imaginable via the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
In the height of Cold War tensions, the competition was generally assumed to be a showcase for Russian pianists. Awarding top prize to a lanky, subtly drawling Texan created a political as well as artistic sensation. Cliburn’s face was on TV screens and front pages of newspapers and magazines around the world, and he was feted with a New York ticker-tape parade.
In his prime he was a distinctive musician. His rich tone and generous expressivity stood out from the chiseled but chilly brilliance typical of pianists at the time, and audiences sensed a personal warmth from the gentlemanly 23-year-old.
A group of Fort Worthians came up with the idea of honoring the adopted Texan with a competition bearing his name, and it was first held in 1962. After ups and downs in his concert and recording career, Cliburn look a break from performing and in 1978 moved from New York to a 10,000-square-foot Tudor mansion in Fort Worth’s Westover Hills. He remained an informal adviser to the competition and beloved figurehead until his death in 2013.
Details
Preliminary and quarterfinal rounds will be at Van Cliburn Concert Hall, 2900 W. Lowden St., Fort Worth. Semifinal and final rounds will be at Bass Performance Hall, Fourth and Commerce streets, Fort Worth. Order of performers will be announced following a drawing on May 19. Competitors to advance to the next stage will be announced at the end of each round.
Preliminary round: May 21, 22 and 23 at 10 a.m., 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Quarterfinal round: May 24 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., May 25 at 10 a.m., 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Semifinal round: May 28 at 7:30 p.m. (recitals), May 29-31 at 2:30 p.m. (recitals) and 7:30 p.m. (concertos), June 1 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. (recitals)
Final round: June 3, 4, and 6 at 7:30 p.m., June 7 at 3 p.m.
Awards ceremony: June 7 at 7 p.m.
Various subscription packages $160 to $1,000. Single tickets for different rounds $10 to $225. 817-212-4280, cliburn.org.