March 31, 2011
FOURTEENTH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO
COMPETITION
TO BE HELD MAY 24-JUNE 9, 2013
AT BASS PERFORMANCE HALL
Leonard Slatkin to conduct Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra in Final Round;
Brentano String Quartet to perform in Semifinal Round;
John Giordano to serve as chairman of the jury
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536
Fort Worth, Texas, March 31, 2011-David Chambless
Worters, president & CEO of the Van Cliburn Foundation,
announced today that the Fourteenth Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition will take place
May 24-June 9, 2013 at Fort Worth's Bass
Performance Hall.Joining the competition for the first
time will be Maestro Leonard Slatkin and the
Brentano String Quartet. The competition welcomes
back the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and
Maestro John Giordano, who will serve as chairman
of the jury for his 11th straight competition since assuming the
post in 1973.
Since its inception in 1962, the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition has been committed to showcasing both
the extraordinary talent of its competitors in recital performance
as well as their ability to successfully and beautifully
collaborate with other musicians. During the Semifinal Round, each
pianist performs a quintet with an outstanding chamber ensemble-a
tradition established by Mr. Van Cliburn, who provides a special
award for Best Performance of Chamber Music. The Fourteenth
Competition will mark the first Cliburn appearance by the world
renowned Brentano String Quartet in this pivotal
role. The Final Round includes the performance of two concerti by
each remaining competitor. The Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra has joined every finalist of every Cliburn
Competition onstage to share in these moving and definitive
moments, and in 2013, they will perform under the baton of
Maestro Leonard Slatkin for the first time.
"The Cliburn Competition is one of the most prestigious piano
events in the world," said Maestro Slatkin. "To be a part of the
process is a great honor. I look forward to working with the
orchestra as well as the talents who participate."
"We are thrilled to have these stellar professionals joining us
for the Fourteenth Competition," said David Chambless Worters.
"Leonard Slatkin can easily be described as a quintessential
American conductor, well respected across the globe for his robust
and storied career. He's also known for his gracious manner, making
him an ideal choice to collaborate with our young pianists at this
crucial point in their artistic development. The Brentano String
Quartet is one of the elite chamber groups performing today, with a
lightning fast career trajectory. Their refreshing passion will
make for an exhilarating second round of the competition."
MAESTRO LEONARD SLATKIN
Maestro Leonard Slatkin has made regular appearances over
the last two decades with virtually every major international
orchestra and opera company. He has been praised by critics and
audiences around the world for his imaginative programming and
interpretations of a vast range of repertoire. Maestro Slatkin was
recently named Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon
(ONL), France, beginning with the 2011-2012 season. He became Music
Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest
Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, both in 2008-2009.
During his 12-year tenure as Music Director of the National
Symphony Orchestra which ended in the 2007-2008 season, he
undertook highly lauded European, Asian, and U.S. tours; numerous
national broadcasts; and intriguing themed festivals-among them
"Soundtracks" and "Journey to America." Immediately prior, he
served as Music Director for the St. Louis Symphony for 16 years.
Maestro Slatkin's many distinguished awards include a number of
Grammy® Awards and the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest
honor for a performing artist.
BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
Mark Steinberg, violin
Serena Canin, violin
Misha Amory, viola
Nina Lee, cello
With a wide-ranging repertoire that encompasses the entire
two-century catalogue of traditional quartet music, the
Brentano String Quartet has distinguished itself
as one of the world's foremost chamber ensembles. Since its
inception in 1992, the quartet has appeared throughout the world to
popular and critical acclaim. Its numerous awards include the
Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In
1996, the ensemble was invited by the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center to be an inaugural member of Chamber Music Society
Two, a program that has become a coveted distinction for chamber
groups. The Quartet had its first European tour in 1997, and was
honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most
Outstanding Debut. That debut recital, at London's Wigmore Hall,
precipitated a warm relationship between the ensemble and the
venue. Since then it has appeared there regularly and served as the
hall's quartet-in-residence during the 2000-2001 season. The
Brentano String Quartet has performed in the world's most
prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in
New York; the Library of Congress in Washington; the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam; the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and
the Sydney Opera House. It has collaborated with celebrated artists
like Jessye Norman and Richard Goode, and has made several
recordings for the Aeon label.
FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's world-class musicians
and internationally recognized Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya
have become known for outstanding performances of symphonic and
pops music with a wide range of talented artists. The orchestra is
one of the most successful in the U.S., performing an impressive
200 concerts each year for an audience of 250,000 adults and
children from all walks of life. The FWSO is admired nationally for
the strength and uniqueness of its collaborations with other
organizations including the Fort Worth Opera, the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition, the Southwestern Seminary Master
Chorale and the Children's Education Program of Bass Performance
Hall. Its annual summer music festival, Concerts in the
Garden, has grown to be one of the largest and most
successful summer outdoor festivals of its kind in Texas,
attracting an annual audience of nearly 45,000.
MAESTRO JOHN GIORDANO
Director emeritus of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra,
where he was music director for 28 seasons, Maestro Giordano has
served as chairman of the jury for the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition since 1973 and chairman of the jury for the
International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateursä since its
inception in 1999. He holds the title of Distinguished Fellow in
Music at TCU and is currently the music director for the Corpus
Christi Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Giordano founded the Fort Worth
Chamber Orchestra, which appeared at Carnegie Hall and toured
Mexico, Spain, and the People's Republic of China. He has appeared
as a guest conductor in China, England, Mexico, the Philippines,
South America, Taiwan, across Europe, and throughout the U.S. His
published compositions include award-winning film scores for the
documentaries Milepost 407 and A Great Hall
Rises, which celebrates the dedication of the Nancy Lee and
Perry R. Bass Performance Hall. Maestro Giordano is a founder of
the Colorado College Summer Music Festival for Young Artists and
has served on the faculties of TCU, the University of North Texas,
and Tarleton State University. He is director emeritus of the Youth
Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth.
ABOUT THE VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
Van Cliburn's sensational victory at the First
Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow in 1958 heralded a
new confidence in the quality of American music-making, as well as
a new era in cultural relations between East and West. Celebrating
this remarkable achievement, a group of music teachers and citizens
from Fort Worth, Texas created the Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition. First held in 1962, the Competition has established
itself as a joyous festival dedicated to the discovery of the
world's finest young pianists.
In addition to receiving significant cash prizes, the winners of
each competition are awarded three years of career management and
artistic services, including the booking of national tours for all
six finalists and international engagements for the gold medalist,
in conjunction with IMG Europe. The winners of the Thirteenth
Competition held in 2009 are currently concluding their second year
of touring having performed over 350 dates, including concerts,
recitals, master classes, and education/outreach events before
thousands of people. These tours play a vital part in fulfilling
the Van Cliburn Foundation's purpose of bringing the highest
quality of music to audiences everywhere.
Since the competition's inception, significant media projects have
been intrinsic to its organization and reach-including the national
and international distribution of CDs and DVDs, and the broadcast
of syndicated radio programs all over the country. The Foundation
has produced nine documentaries that have aired nationally on PBS
since the 1977 Cliburn Competition and have garnered acclaim and
numerous awards, including a Primetime Emmy® (1989) and a Peabody
Award (2001). A Surprise in Texas, the Peter Rosen film
chronicling the 2009 Competition, was well received at film
festivals across the country and in a Texas theatrical release,
then reached a potential audience of over 105 million households
with its prime time PBS airing on September 1, 2010.
In 1997, the Cliburn began utilizing sophisticated Internet
resources to stream the competition live online, extending its
outreach to every corner of the globe. In 2009, web viewers enjoyed
real-time access to competition performances in their entirety, as
well as to a fully produced webcast offering hours of educational
and cultural content, backstage views of rehearsals, and the
International Cultural Diplomacy Symposia. Unique viewership of the
2009 live coverage and archived footage on Cliburn.tv now totals
well over 200,000.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has been the most
visible expression of the Van Cliburn Foundation's
commitment to the highest standards of musical achievement, but the
mission of the organization is actualized through the combination
of all of its core programs. For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth
Metroplex, the Foundation promotes great music and world-class
artists through the annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches over
30,000 elementary school students annually with the education
programs of Musical Awakenings®. In 1999, it established
the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, which
The Boston Globe proclaimed "a celebration of music, and
the people who have to make music, no matter what." The sixth
Amateur Competition will be held in Fort Worth May 23-29, 2011 at
Ed Landreth Auditorium on the campus of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as it approaches
the 50th anniversary of the First Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of
the Van Cliburn Foundation. American Airlines;
"Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust," Bank of America,
Trustee; Steinway & Sons; and
XTO Energy Inc. are Official Corporate Sponsors.
Official Sponsors are the Amon G. Carter
Foundation, Arts Council of Fort Worth &
Tarrant County, Beaumont Foundation of
America, the Burnett Foundation, the
Sid W. Richardson Foundation, and the T.
Boone Pickens Foundation. Star-Telegram
is the exclusive print media sponsor, and WRR 101.1
FM is the official radio station of Cliburn Concerts.
