In 1958, Van Cliburn during the historic homecoming ticker tape parade in New York City after winning the Tchaikovsky Competition (The Cliburn Photo)
Van Cliburn would have turned 89 last July 12, 2023.
On that day, musicians and music schools paid tribute to the pianist’s lifelong commitment to music by posting video clips from his landmark engagements.
Born on July 12, 1934 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Cliburn led the amazing life of most piano prodigies like the Philippines’ Cecile Licad and Argentina’s Martha Argerich.
Consider his early musical life: piano studies at age three under his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn; orchestral debut at 12; and a Carnegie Hall debut two years later.
Cecile Licad with Van Cliburn and his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, during a CCP concert (From the files of Dr. Jesus Licad)
As fate would have it, he made history when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, at age 23, in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. The significance of this Moscow competition was that it was organized “to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority on the heels of the country’s launch of Sputnik.”
The oft-repeated story was that when it was time to announce the winner, the judges asked the permission of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to award the first prize to an American—which was an embarrassment to Soviet’s “cultural superiority.”
“Is he the best?” Khrushchev reportedly asked. “Then give him the prize!”
Then the unthinkable happened. Cliburn flew home to the good ol’ USA to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor was ever given a musician.
Last meeting of Van Cliburn and Cecile Licad at the Steinway anniversary event in New York (Cecile Licad File)
Cliburn died in 2013 from bone cancer at age 78.
In the latest edition of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions, there was a feeling of déjà vu when a sensational grand prize winner named Yunchan Lim of South Korea emerged, and he was only 18!
After his triumph at The Cliburn, Yunchan Lim had a sensational debut in London, Tokyo, Lucerne, and a widely praised debut with the New York Philharmonic under James Gaffigan.
After winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, he became the first musician to be honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City
At the time he won The Cliburn, he was only a college sophomore in South Korea’s National University of the Arts. And he had no prestige school to name-drop (like Juilliard or Curtis) and no heavyweight mentors like (Rudolf) Serkin and (Gary) Graffman. His teacher was a modest South Korean pianist named Minsoo Sohn.
All of a sudden, he won a solid following in the US, Europe and Asia! Like it or not, he has been touted as classical music’s answer to K-pop.
“He’s a musician way beyond his years,” said conductor Marin Alsop, who headed the Cliburn jury and led the Rachmaninoff 3 performance. “Technically, he’s phenomenal, and the colors and dynamics are phenomenal. He’s incredibly musical and seems like a very old soul. It’s really quite something.”
What many don’t know is that Van Cliburn had colorful Philippine connections. The pianist was a familiar figure in the Philippine cultural scene during Martial Law, with Imelda Marcos as his host.
Cliburn’s name appears on several occasions in the guest book of the Coconut Palace, where Mrs. Marcos’ celebrity guests would be housed. When the former First Lady was confined in the hospital after an assassin attacked her with a bolo during a public engagement in 1972, one of the first hospital visitors was Cliburn.
The friendship between the former First Lady and the American pianist bloomed to such heights that Cliburn agreed to give a fundraising concert for the benefit of young talented Filipino musicians. This was in the early ’70s. When Cliburn arrived in Manila for the concert, the one who welcomed him with a bouquet in the airport was the young Cecile Licad herself, Imelda’s favorite prodigy.
In the early ’70s, the first meeting of Van Cliburn and a very young Cecile Licad (From the FB Page of Cecile Licad)
That Cliburn concert raised funds for the Young Artists Foundation which funded several aspiring musicians, among them Licad, Rowena Arrieta, Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, Raul Sunico, the Bolipata brothers, and Noel Velasco.
In another fundraising concert at the Araneta Coliseum, with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) orchestra (now the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra), Cliburn played the Grieg concerto even without the benefit of a rehearsal. The pianist was then stuck in Leyte with Mrs. Marcos, and arrived in Manila just in time for the concert.
Then CCP president (now National Artist for Music) Lucrecia Kasilag congratulated Cliburn and conductor Luis Valencia backstage: “Amazing how this concerto went very well without a rehearsal.”
The pianist was stuck in Leyte with Mrs. Marcos and arrived in Manila just in time for his fundraising concert at the Araneta Coliseum
A few years later, in the young Licad’s first performance in Van Cliburn’s home state, Texas, his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, was so impressed that she slipped a $100 bill in the prodigy’s concert gown after her performance with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
In the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, two Filipino musicians—Kasilag and Valencia—had been invited to be part of the jury.
Thus far, only one Filipino pianist made it in this competition: Iloilo-born Ma. Luisa Lopez Vito, who placed fourth in the 1966 edition of the Van Cliburn Competition, with Romania’s sensation Radu Lupu as the first prize winner
The 1966 winners of the Van Cliburn Competition, including Filipino pianist Maria Luisa Vito, 4th place (The Van Cliburn Photo)
Two of the top prize winners, Brazilian Cristina Ortiz and American Steven de Groote, have performed at the CCP to good audience reception. Created in 1962, The Cliburn competition, held every four years, remains a pre-eminent showcase for the world’s top pianists.
“It is a forum for young artists to celebrate the great works of piano literature, and an opportunity to expose their talents to a wide-ranging international audience,” Cliburn said during the 10th competition in 1997.
Suddenly, Licad and Cliburn had one thing in common. apart from being celebrated piano prodigies. Like Licad, Cliburn was also recipient of the Leventritt Gold Medal, along with frequent Manila visitor, Gary Graffman (now the celebrated mentor of another celebrated pianist, Yuja Wang).
It must be noted that Cliburn didn’t consider his 1958 Moscow triumph a big deal. “I am so grateful because the Russians were wonderful to me. They were such great audiences; I cannot begin to tell you. I didn’t conquer anything. As a matter of fact, they conquered my heart,” he said.
Cliburn’s humility was echoed by the young Yunchan Lim, who said after winning the Texas competition, “I just want to say that there’s nothing different in me and my piano skills before and after the win.” Lim made the remarks in a news conference with his teacher.
In 2003, President George W Bush presented Cliburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2004, Cliburn received the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation from Russian president Vladimir Putin. Van Cliburn also received the 2010 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.
Cliburn appeared many years back in the cartoon Iron Man, playing himself in the episode Silence My Companion, Death My Destination.
