March 28, 2023

The Cliburn announces today the 24 competitors and 14 additional festival participants invited to the third edition of the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival, for 13- to 17-year-olds. The global cultural event will take place June 8–17, 2023, in Dallas, Texas, with the first three rounds at Caruth Auditorium at SMU and the Final Round performance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valentina Peleggi at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

The 38 artists of the 2023 Cliburn Junior hail from all over the world, representing 13 countries: the United States (13), China (12), South Korea (4), Japan (2), Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Czechia, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, and Ukraine (includes two dual representations). They range in age from 13 to 17 with four 13-, ten 14-, seven 15-, fourteen 16-, and three 17-year-olds.

An impressive applicant pool of 248 young pianists from 44 countries submitted online applications that included 15- to 20-minute performance videos. The 24 competitors were selected through a two-step review process by screening jurors Greg Anderson, Lydia Artymiw, Kenny Broberg, Sean Chen, Alvin Chow, Lucille Chung, Alessandro Deljavan, Yakov Kasman, and Dominique Morel. From the same applicant pool, the Cliburn artistic staff chose the additional 14 participants based on their artistic promise, their expected benefit from taking part in the festival, and the contribution they would make to the diverse, collective group of extraordinary artists.

This year’s competitors display impressive determination in their craft, from one who, at 16, has already finished first place in 30 international piano competitions, to another who is so committed to his studies that he took 10-hour train rides to attend his piano lessons, and one who, when he was 12, recorded the piano performance of the main character in the popular anime series, Forest of Piano. They also exhibit great talent outside of piano performance: one has been commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to write a piano trio, another is a National MathCounts finalist, and yet another has been seriously studying and practicing Chinese calligraphy since he was 4. The Cliburn looks forward to welcoming these impressive young artists to Texas this June.