VAN CLIBURN (Shreveport, Louisiana, 12 july 1934 – Fort Worth, 23 february 2013)

Pianist, winner of the Tchaichovsky Competition in 1958, at the age of 23. He began his studies at the age of three with his mother Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, herself a pianist and student of a pupil of Liszt. At the age of 17 he entered the Juilliard School in New York, under the direction of Rosina Lhevinne. Catapulted to fame after winning the first Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he captured the hearts of millions, fascinated by his magnetic personality and virtuoso interpretations. He was the first classical performer to be welcomed by a parade in New York, and the first to sell more than a million copies of a record of piano music. In 1962, an international competition bearing his name was established. After numerous world tours and several recordings, he retired from concert activity in 1978. In 1987 he played at the White House dinner in honour of Mikhail Gorbachev and resumed his concert activities. In 1989, the New York Times wrote: ‘A Celebrity’s Triumphant Return… It is reassuring… to know that, after all these years of silence, the mysterious impulses that drive gifted artists to carry on after the fires of youth have faded have not disappeared’. In 2001, he was awarded the Kennedy Centers Honors by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. In 2003 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2004 the Russian Friendship Medal. In the same year, he received a Grammy Award. He died on 23 February 2013.