August 2, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maggie Estes, Director of
Marketing
mestes@cliburn.org
<mestes@cliburn.org>
, 817.738.6536 (o), 817.739.0459 (c)
Fort Worth, Texas, August 2, 2011-A
Surprise in Texas: The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition, the Peter
Rosen-directed film chronicling the 2009 Cliburn
Competition, has won the 2011 ECHO Klassik Award
for Best Music DVD Recording of the Year (Documentation).
Each year the Phono Akadamie, the cultural institute of the German
music industry association, recognizes the most outstanding and
successful recordings by national and international classical
artists with this prestigious prize-one of the best established and
most well known music awards in the world. Prizewinners from a
broad range of categories are determined by a judging panel
comprised of personalities from politics, the arts, and media, as
well as the classical wing of the German music industry
association. The award ceremony will be held on Sunday,
October 2, 2011 at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
A Surprise in Texas goes inside the 2009 Cliburn
Competition to highlight several competitors, including 20-year-old
Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan, blind since birth; 19-year-old Haochen
Zhang of China, the youngest competitor; and 23-year-old Yeol eum
Son of South Korea, recently named 2nd prize winner at the 2011
International Tchaikovsky Competition. Also featured are Conductor
James Conlon, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Takács
Quartet. After debuting at the Vail, Beverly Hills, and DALLAS
International Film Festivals, the film enjoyed a statewide Texas
theatrical release in May 2010. It then received phenomenal
reception from a nationwide PBS audience on September 1, 2010 when
it aired at primetime in nearly all of the 50 top markets, reaching
over 105 million households. Through partnerships with EuroArts
Music International, NHK, and Avex Classics, the documentary was
also broadcast internationally and distributed on DVD with great
success around the world.
Synopsis of A Surprise in Texas
Twenty-nine of the world's best young pianists
converged in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2009 for a once in a lifetime
chance at gold in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition. Emmy-winning director Peter Rosen follows these
distinctive personalities during a rigorous three-week
competition-through intense rehearsals, introspective moments,
preconcert rituals, and endearing celebrations. Hailing from 14
countries, competitors were welcomed with Texas-sized hospitality
by their host families and immersed in a city best characterized by
"Cowboys and Culture." With performances of Chopin, Liszt,
Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and other piano masterpieces setting an
impassioned tone, the result is an intricate inside view into the
inner workings of one of the world's most prestigious piano
competitions and a heartwarming story that proves to be a momentous
surprise in Texas.
About Peter Rosen Productions, Inc.
Founded in the 1970s by producer/director Peter Rosen,
Peter Rosen Productions, Inc. has made over 100 full-length
documentary films and television programs on a wide variety of
subjects. Five of these productions have won Emmys, and many others
have been awarded top prizes and honors at film festivals and
competitions throughout the world. Peter Rosen has won the
prestigious Directors Guild of America Award and a Peabody Award.
His work has featured many of the most important figures in the
arts including Leonard Bernstein, Martha Graham, Yo-Yo Ma, Beverly
Sills, I. M. Pei, and Garrison Keillor. Visit
PeterRosenProductions.com.
About the Van Cliburn Foundation
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music
worldwide, and launches and nurtures young artists' careers through
the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tours of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, and a syndicated radio series
dedicated to the competition and its most memorable performances.
By making the competition available in its entirety on the
Internet, the Foundation has extended its outreach to listeners in
every corner of the globe.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches approximately 34,000
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."
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, the
Burnett Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase
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.
