FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing and Public
Relations
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536 (o), 817.739.0459
(c)
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
What: Van Cliburn Foundation 50th
Anniversary Gala
When: Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Where: Water Gardens Plaza, Fort Worth Convention
Center
(Map
/index.php?page=2012-gala)
Details: Photographers and video crews will be welcome
outside of the building's entrance as guests arrive, beginning at
6:30 p.m., and inside the lobby space from 7 to 8 p.m. Cameras will
not be allowed inside the ballroom.
People: Over 800 expected in attendance,
including:
Ralph Votapek, gold medalist, First Cliburn Competition
(1962)
Cristina Ortiz, gold medalist, Third Cliburn Competition
(1969)
Vladimir Viardo, gold medalist, Fourth Cliburn Competition
(1973)
André-Michel Schub, gold medalist, Sixth Cliburn Competition
(1981)
José Feghali, gold medalist, Seventh Cliburn Competition
(1985)
Simone Pedroni, gold medalist, Ninth Cliburn Competition
(1993)
Liu Shih Kun, 2013 Cliburn juror; second prize, First
Tchaikovsky Competition (1958)
The Honorable Betsy Price, mayor, City of Fort
Worth
The Honorable Kay Granger, congresswoman, 12th District of
Texas
The Van Cliburn Foundation will celebrate its 50th
Anniversary with a festive Gala, to be held Saturday, March 3, 2012
at 7 p.m. at the Water Gardens Plaza entrance to the Fort Worth
Convention Center. The black-tie party, which will hearken back to
the Eisenhower/Kennedy era of the Competition's inception, is
chaired by dedicated Cliburn volunteers Tina Harrison Gorski,
Whitney Hyder More, and Martha Schutts Williams.
Richard Flowers, of The Events Company in Houston, will
transform the space into the perfect atmosphere for this
celebration of a half century of memories, highlighting the great
moments and the remarkable personalities that have defined the
competition and the Foundation. Chef David Andrews, who has
recently come to Fort Worth from the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, is
designing the elegant dinner menu, and The Starlight Experience,
America's premier cover band, will set the mood with high-energy
performances of dance music-from Motown to Rock, Disco to Hip-Hop,
and Top 40 to the Great American Songbook.
The First Van Cliburn International Piano Competition began
September 24, 1962, in Fort Worth, Texas, at TCU's Ed Landreth
Auditorium. In its 50 years, the Cliburn has produced 13
international piano competitions; over 40 commercial audio
recordings of selected competition performances; 9 full-length
documentaries chronicling the competitions since 1977, and 2
six-part series, Concerto with James Conlon in 2001, and Encore!
With James Conlon in 2005; scores of national radio broadcasts of
the competitions since 1985; 4 Internet broadcasts of the
competitions since 1997; 10 commissioned pieces by American
composers for the first 10 competitions, and competitions for new
works for the 2001, 2005, and 2009 Competitions, awarding 13
American composers; 81 finalists, including 40 medalists, who gave
approximately 4,000 Cliburn-arranged performances following their
wins; 6 International Piano Competitions for Outstanding Amateurs™;
1 live Internet broadcast of the Amateur Competition in 2011; 35
years of Cliburn Concerts, featuring national and international
artists with over 325 performances since 1976; and annual
educational outreach programs, notably Musical Awakenings® since
2001.
ABOUT THE VAN CLIBURN FOUNDATION
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music
worldwide, and nurtures and launches young artists' careers through
the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tours of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, radio broadcasts, and a live webcast
that extends its outreach to listeners around the world. In 2009,
over 2,857,573 total streams were delivered to viewers from 157
countries/territories.
The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
will take place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth's Bass
Performance Hall and will welcome 30 of the world's finest young
pianists to Texas. Continuing its longstanding commitment to new
music, the Cliburn has selected composer Christopher Theofanidis to
write the commissioned work that will be performed by all
competitors during the Semifinal Round. Additionally, the
Competition has been dedicated to showcasing both the extraordinary
talent of its competitors in recital performance as well as their
ability to collaborate with other musicians. The Fourteenth
Competition will mark the first Cliburn appearance by the
world-renowned Brentano String Quartet performing a piano quintet
with each of the 12 semifinalists. The Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra, which has appeared at???every Cliburn Competition, will
perform two concerti with each of the six finalists, under the
baton of Maestro Leonard Slatkin for the first time. Maestro John
Giordano will serve as chairman of the jury for his eleventh
Competition since assuming the post in 1973.
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 33,000
elementary school students annually with the education programs of
Musical Awakenings. In 1999, it established the 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." The sixth Amateur Competition was held May
23-29, 2011, at Ed Landreth Auditorium on the campus of
TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn during its
50th Anniversary year in 2012.
Official Sponsors of the Van Cliburn Foundation
are:
American Airlines
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of
America, Trustee
Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
ExxonMobil
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
The Burnett Foundation
XTO Energy Inc.
Exclusive Print Media Sponsor
Star-Telegram
Exclusive Radio Station
WRR 101.1 FM
