For the laureates of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, competing in—and winning—one of the world’s major classical music events marks only the beginning of their professional lives in music. The Competition is foremost a launch pad for establishing meaningful careers.

Over 17 days of intense competition and incredible music-making, more than 8.5 million people in 170 countries watched online and millions more watched on-demand in the days following (with Yunchan Lim’s performance of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 reaching #24 in globally trending videos on YouTube, amassing 1.2 Million views in less than 24 hours.) The world fell in love with these young pianists through more than 2,000 news stories published over the course of the competition.