Cliburn Artists

The Cliburn is a proven catalyst to significant worldwide touring careers for its winners, with a laureate roster that—in the past 25 years alone—includes Olga Kern, Joyce Yang, Haochen Zhang, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Yeol Eum Son, Vadym Kholodenko, Beatrice Rana, Yekwon Sunwoo, and Yunchan Lim. And to that list, it now adds its 2025 class: Aristo Sham (gold), Vitaly Starikov (silver), and Evren Ozel (bronze).

As in competitions past, the three medalists receive a comprehensive and personalized career management package, including three years of concert bookings, artistic planning mentorship, traditional and social media training, logistics support, and tax and financial planning guidance, as well as commercial recording releases and a complete promotional package.

For the laureates of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, competing in—and winning—one of the world’s major classical music events marks only the beginning of their professional lives in music. The Competition is foremost a launch pad for establishing meaningful careers.

Explore the specially curated collections of videos from the Cliburn's extensive video library of Competition performances.

Documentaries have been one of the Cliburn’s most powerful tools for reaching new audiences. In total, there have been twelve films to date; they have told the stories of the competitors and captured countless exhilarating, life-changing moments. 

In 2024, the Cliburn Agency was launched t offer comprehensive general management, concert booking, project management, and publicity and branding services to a select group of rising and established instrumentalists—piano and beyond—whose high artistic caliber is matched by a vision for moving the field of classical music forward.

The Cliburn Agency LLC is an independently operated affiliate of the Van Cliburn Foundation, Inc.