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In this concert, 2 of 12 competitors will each perform a 60-minute recital.

In this concert, 3 of 28 competitors will each perform a 40-minute recital, including the worldwide debut of the 2025 Cliburn commissioned work composed by Competition juror Gabriela Montero.

Adopt-A-Competitor returns to local libraries this year, inviting you to see two of the 2025 competitors—Vitaly Starikov and Sung Ho Yoo—perform 20 minutes each ahead of the upcoming 2025 Cliburn Competition. Bring your friends and family for this fun culturally inspired program.

Shields-Collins “Buddy” Bray has been artistic consultant for the Cliburn since 2003. For the last 20 years he has shown his longstanding commitment to new music, hosting concerts spotlighting living American composers such as William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie, Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, and Ben Moore. With music educator John Feierabend, Buddy created the Cliburn in the Classroom curriculum for second-, third-, and fourth-graders; now, after almost two decades of serving as writer, narrator, host, and sometimes-pianist at these uniquely interactive programs, he continues to be heavily involved in an advisory role.

The Cliburn is pleased to announce the new Gold Medal Patron premium subscription packages for the seventeenth edition of its flagship Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, taking place May 21–June 7, 2025, at Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU and Bass Performance Hall, in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

Taking a simple theme and writing variations on it is like catnip for composers. Almost no composer can resist the chance to display compositional chops, and these magnificent sets are written with maximum enjoyment (for pianist and listener) in mind.

Pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. Gloria was subsequently selected by the The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, Gloria launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade.

Clarinetist Rodolfo "Rudy" Mireles-Manzano, a South Texas native, is an active performer and educator in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. He holds a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of North Texas and a master’s in clarinet performance from Boston University. His principal teachers include Dr. Phillip Paglialonga, Greg Raden, Rob Patterson, and Calvin Falwell.

Aristo Sham caught up with Hong Kong's South China Morning Post for an interview, detailing his personal and professional inspirations, life as a musician, and his family's reaction to his win at the Cliburn.

In this concert, 3 of 6 competitors will each perform concertos with Marin Alsop and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.