Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn ( born July 12, 1934 in Shreveport, Louisiana as Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr., † February 27, 2013 in Fort Worth) was an American pianist.

Life

Van Cliburn played at the age of 4 years of piano. At age 13, he won a local competition in Texas, a year later the first prize at the National Music Festival in New York's Carnegie Hall. By the age of 17 years, the " prodigy " was taught by his mother Rildia Bee Cliburn. From 1951 Van Cliburn attended the courses of Rosina Lhévinne at the Juilliard School.

1958 won the 23 -year-old Texan in the Cold War the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and became world- famous overnight. Photos of his triumph in an open car through New York appeared in all the newspapers. Henceforth, he has performed in concert halls throughout the world, devoted to conducting short and retired in 1978 from the concert life back.

During a dinner at the White House in honor of Mikhail Gorbachev played Van Cliburn in December 1987 for the first time publicly. Then he performed sporadically. This was followed by an appearance in the Man Music Center in Philadelphia, celebrated concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as the opening of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. The New York Times wrote at the time: " A Celebrity returns, Undimmed. " ( " A celebrity returns, unclouded. "). It said: "It is reassuring to know ... after all synthesis silent years did he is not deficient in the mysterious pulse did keep gifted artists active after the fires of youth burn low. " ( " It's comforting ... to know that he after all the silent years those mysterious impulses not missing, let the talented artists continue after the fires of youth. "). Later, Cliburn has withdrawn entirely from the music business.

His most famous recording was the first piano concerto by Tchaikovsky. The recording sold in 1961 more than one million copies, which had until then been managed with still no other work in the field of classical music.

Since 1962 it every four years, will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in honor.

" There are only two irreplaceable things," Cliburn had said shortly before his death in one of his last interviews: " Great music and wonderful memories ."

Honors

2003 U.S. President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom Cliburn ( The Presidential Medal of Freedom ), the highest civilian award in the United States.

References to Van Cliburn

Excerpt: Frankie Vaughan / Marilyn Monroe: " Specialization "

" Specialization, specialization. "

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