Van Cliburn

Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) was an American pianist.

In 1952, Cliburn won the International Chopin Competition at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City.

At 20, Cliburn won the Leventritt Award and made his debut at Carnegie Hall.

At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War.

Cliburn's mother, a piano teacher and an accomplished pianist in her own right, discovered him playing at age three, mimicking one of her students, and arranged for him to start taking lessons.

Cliburn developed a rich, round tone and a singing-voice-like phrasing, having been taught from the start to sing each piece.

Cliburn toured domestically and overseas.

He played for royalty, heads of state, and every US president from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.

Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the son of Rildia Bee ( O'Bryan) and Harvey Lavan Cliburn Sr. When he was three, he began taking piano lessons from his mother, who had studied under Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt.

When Cliburn was six, his father, who worked in the oil industry, moved the family to Kilgore, Texas.

At 12, Cliburn won a statewide piano competition, which led to his debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

He entered the Juilliard School in New York City at 17 and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romantics.

The first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War after the USSR's technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957.

Cliburn's performance at the competition finale of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 on April 13 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes.

After the ovation, Van Cliburn made a brief speech in Russian and then resumed his seat at the piano and began to play—to the surprise and delight of the Russian musicians visible behind him in the film made of his part in the competition—his own piano arrangement of the much-beloved song "Moscow Nights", which further endeared him to the Russians.

When it was time to announce the winner, the judges felt obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give the first prize to an American.

"Is he the best?"

Khrushchev asked.

"Yes."

"Then give him the prize!"

Cliburn was to maintain a lasting relationship with the Soviet leader.

Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor has been accorded a classical musician.

Arriving at City Hall after the parade, Cliburn told the audience:"I appreciate more than you will ever know that you are honoring me, but the thing that thrills me the most is that you are honoring classical music. Because I'm only one of many. I'm only a witness and a messenger. Because I believe so much in the beauty, the construction, the architecture invisible, the importance for all generations, for young people to come that it will help their minds, develop their attitudes, and give them values. That is why I'm so grateful that you have honored me in that spirit."A cover story in Time magazine proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia".

His triumph in Moscow propelled Cliburn to international prominence.

Upon returning to the United States, Cliburn appeared in a Carnegie Hall concert with the Symphony of the Air, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin, who had led the Moscow Philharmonic in the prize-winning performances in Moscow.

The performance of the Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto at this concert was subsequently released by RCA Victor on LP.

Cliburn was also invited by Steve Allen to play a solo during Allen's prime time NBC television series on May 25, 1958.

He later went to the White House to meet with President Eisenhower to discuss relations with the USSR.

RCA Victor signed him to an exclusive contract, and his subsequent recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 won the 1958 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance.

In 1958, during a dinner hosted by the National Guild of Piano Teachers, President and Founder Dr. Irl Allison announced a cash prize of $10,000 to be used for a piano competition named in Cliburn's honor.

It was certified a gold record in 1961, and it became the first classical album to go platinum, achieving that certification in 1989.

It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade.

It eventually went triple-platinum.

In 1961, he first performed at the Interlochen Center for the Arts during its summer camp.

Under the leadership of Grace Ward Lankford and with the dedicated efforts of local music teachers and volunteers, the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was held from September 24 to October 7, 1962, at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Until his death, Cliburn continued to serve as Director Emeritus for the Van Cliburn Foundation, as host of the quadrennial competition and host of other programs honoring his legacy.

In 2004, this recording was re-mastered from the original studio analogue tapes, and released on a Super Audio CD.

Other standard repertoire Cliburn recorded include the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 and No. 5 "Emperor", and the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.

He went on to do so for eighteen more years, his last visit to the school being in 2006.

Cliburn returned to the Soviet Union on several occasions.