Glossary: f

Francesco Granata

Francesco Granata

Italy  |  Age 23

Milan native Francesco Granata’s journey with music began when he was 5 and has not stopped since. He graduated from the Milan Conservatory in 2016, with the highest evaluation and special mention. He then had the opportunity to study under two distinguished Cliburn laureates: Benedetto Lupo at the St. Cecilia Academy in Rome, where he obtained the Master Course Diploma, and—now—Roberto Plano at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

He won several competitions in Italy, including Premio Crescendo in Florence, Premio Società Umanitaria in Milan, and the Italian selections of Jeunesse Musicale International. In 2017, he won the XXXIV Premio Venezia, reserved for the top Italian graduates. This led to many concert engagements across the country, as well in other European countries and in India. In 2021, he had strong finishes at both the Montreal and Busoni Competitions.

In 2015, he recorded Lachner’s transcription of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto for piano and string quintet on DVD for Limenmusic studios. 2018 saw the release of his first CD, through the Italian music magazine Suonare news.

When asked about his vision for future musical endeavors, Francesco said: “I believe that culture is meant for humankind, not for only a few people. One of my dreams is to be able to perform in less-advantaged countries, developing also educational projects for the communities and children, speaking the only common language in the world: music itself.”

REPERTOIRE

Preliminary Round

TCHAIKOVSKY Méditation, op. 72, no. 5
HOUGH Fanfare Toccata
SCHUBERT Sonata in A Minor, D. 784
STRAVINSKY–AGOSTI Suite from The Firebird

Quarterfinal Round

CLEMENTI Sonata in F-sharp Major, op. 25, no. 5
RAVEL Miroirs

Semifinal Round – Recital

BEETHOVEN–LISZT Adelaide, S. 466, no. 3
BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, op. 110
BACH–BUSONI Chaconne in D Minor, BWV 1004
KAPUSTIN Concert Etudes, op. 40, nos. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8

Semifinal Round – Mozart concerto

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482

Final Round – Concerto I

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, op. 58

Final Round – Concerto II

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 83

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Federico Gad Crema

Federico Gad Crema

Italy  |  Age 23

Milan-born Federico Gad Crema has already performed at some of the most prestigious halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Teatro alla Scala and Sala Verdi in Milan, and Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). He regularly performs with top orchestras such as Orchestra dell’Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, NEOJIBA Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra of Cannes, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, and New Mexico Philharmonic.
 
Winner of numerous major national and international piano competitions in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, and the United States, recent prizes include first place at Concours International André Dumortier, third at Casagrande, and second at the Olga Kern International Piano Competition. 
 
A 2016 graduate of the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan, he continued his studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, and, since 2019, is a proud recipient of a full scholarship at the Perosi Music Academy. In 2021, he obtained his master’s degree at the Conservatory of Music in Milan with high honors, and he has been awarded a prestigious grant from the De Sono Foundation. 
 
Federico is creating a music festival in beautiful Santuario di Oropa, an event designed to “embrace the core values of social and religious integration through music. The modern world we live in is facing an alarming lack of awareness and togetherness, and I believe we can use the power and sincerity of music as a binding glue for our broken society.” He also nurtures passions for conducting and fashion through mentorships with Brazilian conductor Ricardo Castro in Geneva and Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Los Angeles. 

federicogadcrema.com

REPERTOIRE

Preliminary Round

SCARLATTI Sonata in D Minor, K. 213
SCRIABIN Fantasy in B Minor, op. 28
MENDELSSOHN Variations sérieuses, op. 54
HOUGH Fanfare Toccata

Quarterfinal Round

CHOPIN 24 Preludes, op. 28

Semifinal Round – Recital

DEBUSSY Images, Book I
CHOPIN Fantasy in F Minor, op. 49
MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition

Semifinal Round – Mozart concerto

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488

Final Round – Concerto I

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, op. 21

Final Round – Concerto II

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, op. 15

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Fei-Fei

FEI-FEI
2013 Cliburn Finalist
Preliminary Round Recital II
webcast live from Bass Performance Hall on May 29, 2013

PROGRAM
SCARLATTI Sonata in D Major, K. 96; Sonata in F Minor, K. 466
DEBUSSY Danse
LISZT Sonata in B Minor

ABOUT FEI-FEI
Finalist at the 2013 Cliburn Competition and winner of the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Competition, Fei-Fei has established a reputation for bringing “passion, piquancy, and tenderness” to performances throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Recent collaborations include a tour of Spain with the New York Youth Symphony, an artist residency with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, and chamber music both with her trio, the Aletheia Piano Trio, and as part of The Inner Voices project with clarinetist Yoonah Kim and violist Dana Kelley. Currently living in New York, Fei-Fei has also been sharing #songsofcomfort from home, on her Facebook and YouTube pages. feifeipiano.com

FERDY TALAN

FERDY TALAN

AGE 38  I  WEST NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY  I  INDONESIA
REALTOR

Music changed Ferdy Talan’s life when he was growing up in Jakarta; it led him to New York, where he’s embarked on a decade-long journey of self-discovery, breaking through societal and self-imposed boundaries and limitations. While working fulltime as an agent for Alf Naman Real Estate Advisors, he’s developing his artistic craft, taking regular lessons with Prof. Zitta Zohar and competing in amateur piano competitions: in 2017, he won in St. Petersburg and Boston, and placed second in Washington, D.C. As to why he’s entered the 2022 Cliburn: “Music is my inner language that I deeply understood from a very young age. A bridge for my soul and spirit to the world. Today, more than ever before, we are in dire need for Artists to connect to humanity at large.” His interests outside of real estate and the piano include International cuisine, architecture, and interior design.

 

Repertoire

Preliminary Round

GUBAIDULINA Chaconne
MOSZKOVSKI Étincelles, op. 36, no. 6

Semifinal Round 

BOWEN Toccata, op. 155
SCARLATTI Sonata in F Minor, K. 466
JANÁČEK Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 “From the Street”
RACHMANINOV Moment musicaux in E Minor, op. 16, no. 4

Final Round 

SAINT-SAËNS Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, op. 22 (I)

Filippo Gorini

Since winning the First Prize and Audience Prize at the Telekom-Beethoven Competition in Bonn in 2015, Italian pianist Filippo Gorini has enjoyed a steadily rising career. His concert appearances have drawn unanimous acclaim on many prestigious stages such as the Berlin Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Munich Herkulessaal, Società del Quartetto di Milano, and the Samsung Concert Hall in Seoul.

Recent highlights include recitals in the Tonhalle Zurich, Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris, Amici Della Musica Florence, Meany Center for the Performing Arts Seattle, and Vancouver Playhouse, amongst others, and concertos with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jan Latham-Koenig on their United Kingdom and Benelux tour and with Orchestra Verdi of Milan under the baton of Claus Peter Flor. In 2019–2020, Filippo will make his debut in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra and returns to the United States for the 2020 Cliburn Festival.

Filippo’s debut disc featuring Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, released in August 2017 on Alpha Classics, has garnered critical acclaim, including a Diapason d’Or Award and 5-star reviews on The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde, and more. A new CD is due to be released in January 2020. He has also received other awards such as “Una Vita per la Musica – Giovani” of the La Fenice Theatre, the Young Euro Classic Award, and the Beethoven-Ring of Bonn.

Alongside his solo career, Filippo continues to perform as a chamber musician; in 2016 he performed at “Chamber Music Connects the World” in Kronberg with Steven Isserlis, who later invited him to take part in the Chamber Music Seminars in Prussia Cove. In the upcoming season, he will collaborate with violinists Jonian Ilias Kadesha and Marc Bouchkov in international concert performances. He actively follows the world of contemporary composition, and has played works by composers such as Stockhausen, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Gervasoni, and Lanza in the past season alone.

After graduating with honours from the Donizetti Conservatory in Bergamo, and completing a Postgraduate Course at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Filippo continues his studies with Maria Grazia Bellocchio and Pavel Gililov, and is mentored by Alfred Brendel.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra & Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Conductor

Once again, the six finalists of the Cliburn Amateur Competition will perform one movement of a concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at Bass Performance Hall.

FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is deeply committed to uniting its community through performance, education, and outreach, reaching an audience of more than 200,000 annually. Since its beginnings in 1912, the FWSO has been an essential thread in the city’s cultural fabric and the very foundation of Fort Worth’s performing arts. As the principal resident company of the acoustically superb Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, the Orchestra performs a full season of concerts featuring internationally acclaimed guest artists and works by living composers. The Orchestra performs and partners with the Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, the Cliburn, and Performing Arts Fort Worth. Each summer at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the FWSO presents Concerts in the Garden—a series of family-friendly concerts that has become a city-wide tradition. The FWSO keeps exceptional musical experiences at the heart of its community.

For more information, visit FWSymphony.org.

MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA
FWSO MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE

Celebrating more than 30 years of professional conducting, Miguel Harth-Bedoya has recently concluded tenures as Chief Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (7 seasons) and as Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (20 seasons), where he now holds the title of Music Director Laureate. With a deep commitment to passing his experience on to the next generation of musicians, he is currently the Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and starting the Fall of 2022 he will become the Mary Franks Thompson Director of Orchestral Studies at Baylor University, He has also established The Conducting Institute to teach the fundamentals of conducting to students ages high school and up, of all levels, through an intensive summer program, workshops, courses, and seminars.

Harth-Bedoya conducts orchestras worldwide such as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, BBC Orchestra, Birmingham Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain, New Zealand Symphony, Sydney Symphony, NHK Symphony, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, among others. Equally at home in opera, Harth-Bedoya has led traditional productions with The English National Opera, Canadian Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Bremen Opera, among others.

He has also conducted the world premiere performances of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar at the Santa Fe Opera, and additional productions with the Cincinnati Opera and at the New Zealand Festival.

Harth-Bedoya has an impressive discography of more than 25 recordings, including critically-acclaimed albums on Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, LAWO, Naxos, and MSR Classics.

He is the Artistic and Managing Director of Caminos del Inka, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the rich musical legacy of the Americas.

Born and raised in Peru, Harth-Bedoya received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, both under the guidance of Otto-Werner Mueller.

For more information: www.miguelharth-bedoya.com

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Former First Lady Laura Bush

FORMER FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH
HONORARY CHAIRMAN – 2019 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition & Festival

Laura Bush’s lifetime commitment to education on the highest level continues in this association with the Cliburn Junior Competition, which is designed to encourage the artistic development of the greatest pianistic talent of tomorrow from around the globe. As the Cliburn hosts a major program in Dallas for the first time ever—the majority of which will be held on the campus of SMU—we are thrilled to have Mrs. Bush, a resident of the city and proud alumna of the University, lend her name. She also held a longtime friendship with our inspiration and namesake, Van Cliburn, making this connection particularly special.

—Jacques Marquis, president and CEO

 

Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States, is an advocate for literacy, education, and women’s rights. After leaving the White House, President and Mrs. Bush founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. The Center is home to the Bush Presidential Museum and Library and the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy center established to solve today’s most pressing challenges by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action.  As Chair of the Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative, Mrs. Bush promotes access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity for women and girls around the world.

As First Lady, Mrs. Bush advocated the importance of literacy and education to advance opportunity for America’s young people and to foster healthy families and communities. She highlighted the importance of preparing children to become lifelong learners, convening a White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development in 2001 and a White House Conference on School Libraries in 2002. Laura Bush has visited schools around the world and met with students in nations from Afghanistan to Zambia, with a particular focus on the education of girls and women. Mrs. Bush worked with the Library of Congress to create the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2001.  The National Book Festival continues to this day and annually attracts more than 120,000 Americans. The Texas Book Festival in Austin was co-founded in 1996 by Mrs. Bush while she was First Lady of Texas. At the Bush Institute in Dallas, President and Mrs. Bush’s Education Reform initiative works to improve student achievement through effective school leadership, middle school transformation, and the use of accountability.

Mrs. Bush is the author of the bestselling memoir, Spoken From the Heart, and bestselling children’s book, Our Great Big Backyard. She serves on many boards, including the National Advisory Board for the Salvation Army, the Council for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Board of Trustees for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the SMU Board of Trustees.

Laura Bush was born in Midland, Texas, to Harold and Jenna Welch. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas. She taught in public schools in Dallas, Houston, and Austin and worked as a public school librarian. She served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

President and Mrs. Bush are the proud parents of twin daughters Barbara and Jenna, son-in-law Henry Hager, and happy grandparents to Margaret Laura “Mila” & Poppy Louise Hager.  The Bush family also includes two cats, Bob and Bernadette, and rescue puppy, Freddy.

laurabushfoundation.com

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FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Cliburn artistic partner since 1962

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is deeply committed to uniting its community through performance, education, and outreach, reaching an audience of more than 200,000 annually. Since its beginnings in 1912, the FWSO has been an essential thread in the city’s cultural fabric and the very foundation of Fort Worth’s performing arts. As the principal resident company of the acoustically superb Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, the Orchestra performs a full season of concerts featuring internationally acclaimed guest artists and works by living composers. The Orchestra performs and partners with the Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, The Cliburn, and Performing Arts Fort Worth. Each summer at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the FWSO presents Concerts in the Garden – a series of family-friendly concerts that has become a city-wide tradition. Additionally, the orchestra hosts an annual Festival of Orchestras, providing an opportunity for non-professional orchestras across the state of Texas to perform in Bass Performance Hall. The FWSO keeps exceptional musical experiences at the heart of its community. After all—life is better with music!

www.fwsymphony.org

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