June 1, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
SIX FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
Competition live webcast continues with orchestra rehearsals on
June 1 at www.cliburn.tv
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, MAY 31, 2009-- The jury of the Thirteenth Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition has selected six pianists
to advance to the Final Round of the competition. The announcement
was made tonight from the stage of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass
Performance Hall.
The six finalists are (in alphabetical order):
Mr. Evgeni Bozhanov, 25 (Bulgaria)
Ms. Yeol Eum Son, 23 (South Korea)
Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20 (Japan)
Ms. Mariangela Vacatello, 27 (Italy)
Ms. Di Wu, 24 (China)
Mr. Haochen Zhang, 19 (China)
Each pianist will perform two concerti of his/her choice with the
acclaimed Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of
renowned American conductor James Conlon. Each finalist will also
perform a fifty-minute solo recital of works not performed in
previous rounds.
The Final Round will be held Wednesday, June 3 through Sunday, June
7, and every concert will feature three artists. There will be one
concert on June 3, 4, and 5 beginning at 7:30 p.m., and two
concerts on June 6, beginning at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. On June 7,
the final day of the competition, the concert will begin at 1:30
p.m. The Awards Ceremony will follow at 5:00 p.m.
SCHEDULE OF FINAL ROUND PERFORMANCES
Wednesday, June 3
Evening Performance:
7:30 p.m. - Ms. Mariangela Vacatello (Recital)
intermission
8:45 p.m. - Mr. Evgeni Bozhanov (Chopin, Piano Concerto No.1 in E
minor, Op. 11)
intermission
9:45 p.m. - Ms. Di Wu (Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat
major, Op. 19)
Thursday, June 4
Evening Performance:
7:30 p.m. - Ms. Yeol Eum Son (Recital)
intermission
8:45 p.m. - Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii (Chopin, Piano Concerto No.1 in E
minor, Op. 11)
intermission
9:45 p.m. - Mr. Haochen Zhang (Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D
minor, K. 466)
Friday, June 5
Evening Performance:
7:30 p.m. - Mr. Evgeni Bozhanov (Recital)
intermission
8:45 p.m. - Ms. Yeol Eum Son (Chopin, Piano Concerto No.2 in F
minor, Op. 21)
intermission
9:45 p.m. - Ms. Mariangela Vacatello (Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.
4 in G major, Op. 58)
Saturday, June 6
Matinee Performance:
1:30 p.m. - Mr. Haochen Zhang (Recital)
intermission
2:45 p.m. - Ms. Yeol Eum Son (Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G
minor, Op. 16)
intermission
3:45 p.m. - Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii (Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2
in C minor, Op. 18)
Evening Performance:
7:30 p.m. - Ms. Di Wu (Recital)
intermission
8:45 p.m. - Mr. Evgeni Bozhanov (Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2
in C minor, Op. 18)
intermission
9:45 p.m. - Ms. Mariangela Vacatello (Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No.
3 in C major, Op. 26)
Sunday, June 7
Matinee Performance:
1:30 p.m. - Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii (Recital)
intermission
2:45 p.m. - Mr. Haochen Zhang (Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G
minor, Op. 16)
intermission
3:45 p.m. - Ms. Di Wu (Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D
minor, Op. 30)
5:00 p.m. - Awards Ceremony
TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets to the competition are on sale at the Bass
Performance Hall box office or by phone at 800.462.7979. Tickets
are available for most seating sections except the Mezzanine.
Prices range from $30 to $140 for the Final Round and from $20 to
$75 for the Awards Ceremony.
FINALISTS' BIOS
Evgeni Bozhanov, 24 (Bulgaria)
Evgeni Bozhanov was born in Rousse, Bulgaria, and made his
orchestral debut with his hometown orchestra at age twelve.
Currently pursuing post-graduate studies at the Robert Schumann
Musikhochschule in Duesseldorf, Germany, he earned top prizes at
both the 2008 Casagrande (Terni, Italy), and Sviatoslav Richter
(Moscow, Russia) competitions. Also first-prize winner at the Carl
Beckstein Competition in 2006, he has performed in several major
concert halls in Germany and looks forward to a tour of Italian
cities.
Yeol Eum Son, 23 (South Korea)
Yeol Eum Son has performed with the Israel, New York, Seoul, and
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras, among other noted orchestras.
Third-prize winner of the 2005 Arthur Rubinstein International
Piano Competition, Ms. Son has made debuts at several international
music festivals, including the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw,
the Rheingau Festival in Germany, and the Bowdoin Festival in the
United States. She currently studies at the Hochschule für Musik
und Theater in Hannover, Germany, and has recorded a CD of Chopin
etudes for Universal Music in Korea.
Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20 (Japan)
Nobuyuki Tsujii's performance credits include the Japan
Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, Slovak
Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. At the age of
twelve, he made noted recital debuts at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and
Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. An acclaimed debut album
released by Avex classics in 2007 led to a fifteen-city tour of
Japan and a second CD featuring Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.
2, released in 2008. Blind since birth, Mr. Tsujii states his firm
belief that "there are no barriers in the field of music." He
participates in the performer's program at the Ueno Gakuen College
of Music in Tokyo.
Mariangela Vacatello, 27 (Italy)
Born in Naples to a musical family, Mariangela Vacatello made her
official debut in Milan with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra when
she was fourteen. At seventeen, she was second-prize winner of the
1999 Liszt Piano Competition (Utrecht, Netherlands), and in 2005
she was awarded the same distinction at the Busoni Competition
(Italy). Ms. Vacatello has performed in Italy's most renowned
concert halls and festivals. Recent international engagements
include recitals at Brussels' Palais des Beaux Arts, London's
Wigmore Hall, the Montpellier Festival and Salle Cortot in France,
and extensive tours throughout Mexico and South Africa. She is a
graduate of both the Piano Academy "Incontri col Maestro" in Imola,
Italy, and of London's Royal Academy of Music.
Di Wu, 24, (China)
Recently singled out by Musical America as a young artist to watch,
Di Wu made her orchestral debut with the Beijing Symphony at age
fourteen. She is currently enrolled in Juilliard's artist diploma
program and has performed with the National, New Jersey, and
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, and twice with the New York Pops
Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. International engagements include
recitals at the Busoni International Piano Festival in Italy and at
Germany's Klavier Festival Ruhr, as well as at the Musée d'Orsay in
Paris. Winner of Juilliard's 2009 William Petschek Award, Ms. Wu
will make her Alice Tully Hall recital debut at Lincoln Center in
May 2009.
Haochen Zhang, 19 (China)
The youngest participant in the 2009 Cliburn Competition, Haochen
Zhang gave his debut recital at the Shanghai Music Hall at the age
of five, performing all of Bach's two-part inventions, as well as
sonatas by Haydn and Mozart. He performed with orchestra at age
six, and moved to the United States at fifteen to attend the Curtis
Institute of Music. First-prize winner of the 2007 China
International Piano Competition, Mr. Zhang has performed with the
China National Symphony Orchestra, Krakow State Philharmonic, New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Shanghai
Symphony Orchestra, and has concertized throughout Asia, Europe,
and the United States. He also excels at ping pong and enjoys
writing poetry.
WINNERS' ENGAGEMENTS
All six finalists receive an unparalleled opportunity to perform
throughout the United States, sharing three years of managed
concert tours and more than 300 pre-arranged concert engagements
valued at over $1,000,000 in combined performance fees. The gold
medalist is offered additional concert engagements in Europe and
Asia, in conjunction with IMG Artists, Europe. The Foundation
manages engagements in the United States for all finalists of the
competition on a commission-free basis and coordinates
international concert tours for the gold medalist. (For a complete
list of confirmed awards for the Cliburn 2009 winners, please visit
the Foundation's website.)
LIVE WEBCAST OF ALL PERFORMANCES AND REHEARSALS WITH JAMES CONLON
AND WITH THE ORCHESTRA
For the first time in the Cliburn's webcast history, online
audiences will have the opportunity to watch the finalists perform
in rehearsal and during the competition with the Fort Worth
Symphony Orchestra, led by celebrated American Maestro James
Conlon. Audiences around the world can tune in to the competition's
free webcast, hosted by pianist and arts advocate Jade Simmons, at
www.cliburn.tv. Rehearsals begin at 10:00 a.m. Monday, June
1.
Live webcast coverage of the four symposia presented during the
competition finals will also be available online. (For more details
on the symposia, whose speakers include diplomats, members of the
press, and competition jurors, please visit the Cliburn
website.
The webcast's new interactive features include an "email the
competitor" option, two blogs, video portraits of all pianists,
additional educational materials, and an online audience vote. Held
during each round of the competition, the audience vote allows
viewers to weigh their opinions against the jury's. Online voting
will not influence the outcome of each round, but the audience
favorites will be recognized during the Awards Ceremony on June
7.
Another innovative feature will be the option to view program
commentary, which will appear from time to time at the bottom of
the screen, offering pointers and alerting the viewer what to
listen for while each piece is being played.
RADIO
American Public Media's Performance Today program, which has
covered the entire competition with daily features, will originate
from Fort Worth with host Fred Child during the Final Round. Three
concerti from the Final Round will be broadcast nationwide by
Performance Today on three separate broadcasts during the week
following the competition, and worldwide by the European
Broadcasting Union.
KTCU FM 88.7 has been broadcasting all performances live at
www.ktcu.tcu.edu since the beginning of the competition on May 22.
Rosemary Solomons and Byrwec Ellison will co-host the broadcast of
all Final Round performances and the Awards Ceremony.
WRR 101.1FM listeners have enjoyed access to exclusive Cliburn
documentaries and daily reports live from Bass Hall by Matt
Erikson. WRR will broadcast performance highlights and live audio
streaming of the entire Final Round.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of the Van Cliburn
Foundation. American Airlines, Bank of America, City of Fort Worth,
J.P.Morgan, Star-Telegram, Steinway & Sons, and XTO Energy Inc.
are Official Corporate Sponsors, and RadioShack is the Cliburn's
Corporate Sponsor. Official Sponsors are the Amon G. Carter
Foundation, Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Beaumont
Foundation of America, the Burnett Foundation, the Sid W.
Richardson Foundation, and the T. Boone Pickens Foundation.
Star-Telegram is the principal media partner and WRR 101.1 FM is
the official radio station of Cliburn Concerts.
PRESS INFORMATION
The Cliburn 2009 Press Room is located at Maddox-Muse Center, 330
East 4th Street (across from Bass Performance Hall, off Calhoun
Street).
Press Room phones:
817.212.4478 and 817.212.4479
Sevan Melikyan, Dir. of Marketing and P.R.
Email: sevan@cliburn.org
Cell: 682.564.5613
National Public Relations:
Laura Grant
Email: Laura@Grant-Communications.com
Cell: 917.359.7319
Sevan Melikyan, Director of Marketing
email: sevan@cliburn.org
phone: 817.738.6536
web:
