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Fort Worth, Texas, August 5, 2010:
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has been
called "the musical Olympics of the western world" by the Milwaukee
Journal. PBS presents A Surprise in Texas: The Thirteenth Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition, featuring the
finalists vying for the 2009 competition's coveted gold medal. The
documentary airs on PBS stations nationwide on Wednesday, September
1, 2010, at 9:30 p.m. (ET) (check local listings).
Twenty-nine of the world's best young pianists hailing from 14
countries converged in Fort Worth, Texas, in May 2009 for a
once-in-a-lifetime chance at gold in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition. Emmy Award® winning director Peter
Rosen followed these distinctive personalities during a rigorous
three-week competition through intense rehearsals, introspective
moments, pre-concert rituals and endearing celebrations. With
performances of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and other
composers setting the impassioned tone, the result is an intricate
view into the inner workings of the world's most prestigious piano
competition, and a heartwarming story that proves to be a momentous
surprise in Texas. The documentary features Haochen Zhang of China,
19--the youngest competitor--as well as blind pianist Nobuyuki
Tsujii, 20, of Japan, and Yeol Eum Son, 23, of South Korea.
A screening of the film will be hosted by City Winery in New York
City on August 22 at 7 p.m. The event includes a performance by
former Cliburn competitor Spencer Myer, screening of the film, and
a Q&A afterward by director Peter Rosen.
A DVD of the film will be available September 2 at
Cliburn.org.
About Peter Rosen Productions, Inc.
Founded in the 1970s by producer/director Peter Rosen, Peter Rosen
Productions, Inc. has made over 100 full-length documentary films
and television programs on a wide variety of subjects. Five of
these productions have won Emmys, and many others have been awarded
the top prizes and honors at film festivals and competitions
throughout the world. Peter Rosen has won the prestigious Directors
Guild of America Award and a Peabody Award. His work has featured
some of the most important figures in the arts including Leonard
Bernstein, Martha Graham, Yo-Yo Ma, Beverly Sills, I. M. Pei and
Garrison Keillor. Visit
PeterRosenProductions.com.
About the Van Cliburn Foundation, Fort Worth,
Texas
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
launches and nurtures young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tour of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries and a syndicated radio series dedicated
to the competition and its most memorable performances. By making
the competition available in its entirety on the Internet, the
Foundation has extended its outreach to listeners in every corner
of the globe.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches over 30,000 elementary
school students annually with the education programs of Musical
Awakenings®. In 1999, it established the quadrennial International
Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™, which The Boston Globe
proclaimed "a celebration of music, and the people who have to make
music, no matter what."
Visit
Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as it approaches
the 50th anniversary of the Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition in 2012.
About Van Cliburn
It was the height of the Cold War in 1958 when a young Texan named
Van Cliburn became the winner of the first International
Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Upon his return to the
United States, the 23-year-old Cliburn was given a ticker-tape
parade in New York City, the only classical musician ever so
honored. His album of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, one of
the pieces he performed in Moscow, became the first classical
recording to sell a million copies. Van Cliburn's mother, Rildia
Bee O'Bryan Cliburn, was trained at the Julliard School in New
York, and began teaching her son when he was age three. He spent
most of his childhood in Texas, until age 17, when he went to
Julliard. Six years later, Van Cliburn was the most famous pianist
in the world. He was inducted into the American Classical Music
Hall of Fame, and has received the Kennedy Center Honors Medallion
and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many other
awards.
About KERA
KERA is the presenting station for A Surprise in Texas: The
Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. KERA is a
not-for-profit public media organization that serves the people of
North Texas. The station broadcasts to the fourth-largest
population area in the United States. KERA produces original
multimedia content, carries the best in national and international
public television and radio programs, and provides online resources
at
KERA.org. The station's extensive coverage of the arts can be
found at
ArtAndSeek.net. KERA TV broadcasts on Channel 13.1. WORLD
broadcasts on 13.2. KERA FM broadcasts on 90.1 in Dallas/Fort
Worth/Denton, 88.3 in Wichita Falls, 100.1 in Tyler, and 99.3 in
Sherman. KERA's new music station KXT 91.7 FM is also streamed
online at
KXT.org. |
| ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor
of the Van Cliburn Foundation. American Airlines; Crystelle
Waggoner Charitable Trust, U.S. Trust; City of Fort Worth; Steinway
& Sons; and XTO Energy Inc.are
Official Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Amon
G. Carter Foundation, Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant
County, Beaumont Foundation of America, the
Burnett Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson
Foundation, and the T. Boone Pickens Foundation.
Star-Telegram is the exclusive print media sponsor, and
WRR 101.1 FM is the official radio station of
Cliburn Concerts. |
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