Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War.
Minoru Nojima was a Japanese classical pianist. At the time of his death he was President of the Tokyo College of Music.
Cécile Ousset is a French pianist.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is an American piano competition by The Cliburn, first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas and hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. Initially held at Texas Christian University, the competition has been held at the Bass Performance Hall since 2001. The competition is named in honour of Van Cliburn, who won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition, in 1958.
Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak is a Slovenian pianist and music teacher.
Olga Vladimirovna Kern is a Russian-American classical pianist. She became an American citizen in 2016.
Joyce Yang is a classical pianist. Yang was awarded the silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 19. During the same competition, Joyce was also awarded both the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music, as well as the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work.
Decca Gold is a United States-based record label focusing on classical repertoire. It falls under the umbrella of Verve Label Group, owned by Universal Music Group. The label has a new roster of classical artists and partnerships, and was inspired by the historic Decca Gold Label Series established in 1956 that featured artists such as Andrés Segovia, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Arrau and Dave Brubeck. The label's first album, Emerson String Quartet's Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell, was released on April 21, 2017. Decca Gold partnered with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition to release recordings of the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners. That album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Traditional Chart.
The Van Cliburn Foundation presents the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival, Cliburn in the Classroom, Cliburn in the Community, and Cliburn Concerts.
Sa Chen is a Chinese pianist. She won first prize in the 1994 China International Piano Competition, fourth place in the XIV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, fourth place in the Leeds International Piano Competition and was third in the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
José Carlos Cocarelli is a Brazilian classical pianist resident in France. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was a pupil of Adele Marcus and Merces de Silva Telles. He was awarded second prize on the 1984 Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition and on the 1989 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He won the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 1985 and the Concours Long-Thibaud in 1986.
Armen Babakhanian is an Armenian classical pianist. He has received prizes at various international piano competitions including the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Guardian Dublin, William Kapell and World Piano Competition. Further, he has given recitals in the USA, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Spain.
José Feghali was a Brazilian pianist, who, until his death, was an Artist-in-Residence at Texas Christian University's school of music in piano. He was the gold medalist winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1985.
Evgeni Bozhanov is a Bulgarian pianist who trained with Evgeny Zhelyazkov at the National School of Arts "Prof. Vesselin Stoyanov" in Rousse (Bulgaria). From 2001 to 2006, he studied with Boris Bloch at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen and from 2006 he continued his studies with Georg Friedrich Schenck at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.
The Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition took place in Fort Worth, Texas from May 20 to June 5, 2005. It was won by Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin, while Joyce Yang and Sa Chen were awarded the Silver and bronze medals.
The Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition took place in Fort Worth, Texas, from May 27 to June 11, 1989. Soviet pianist Alexei Sultanov won the competition, while José Carlos Cocarelli (Brazil) and Benedetto Lupo (Italy) were awarded the silver and bronze medals. Sultanov was 19 years old at the time. Alexander Shtarkman (USSR), Tian Ying (China), and Elisso Bolkvadze (USSR) were the 4th, 5th, and 6th place winners respectively.
Nikoghos Tahmizian was an Armenian musicologist, theorist and historian. His professional accomplishments were to decipher neumes (khaz) of Armenian church music, analyze the musical theory of old Armenia and research the life and works of Armenian composers from medieval times to modern era.
The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 was the first recording of Van Cliburn in 1958 for RCA Victor. It won Cliburn a Grammy award and was the first classical recording to go platinum, that is to sell more than a million copies. The RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Kiril Kondrashin who at Cliburn's request had been given permission to leave the Soviet Union.
Maxim Philippov is a Russian pianist. Born in Moscow, Philippov began the study of piano at five and made his public debut at eight. He won a silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, in addition to the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the best performance of chamber music; other prizes include fifth prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 1992, First Laureate of the Honens International Piano Competition in 1996, and Fifth Prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1993, among other prizes at various competitions, including the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He is currently on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory.
