Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn born 12 July 1934

Van Cliburn - born Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. - is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, when at age 23, he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.

Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, Rildia Bee O'Bryan (who had been taught by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt). When Cliburn was six, he and his family moved to Kilgore, Texas, and at twelve he won a statewide piano competition which enabled him to debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17, and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romanticists. At age 20, Cliburn won the prestigious Levintritt Award, and made his Carnegie Hall debut.

But it was his recognition in Moscow which propelled him to international fame. The First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in 1958 was an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of their technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's luminous virtuosity in his competition finale performances of the Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him a standing ovation which lasted a full eight minutes. The Soviet judges were compelled to ask Premier Nikita Khrushchev for permission to give the first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked them. "Then give him the prize!" Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time that honour has been accorded a classical musician. TIME put him on their cover, proclaiming him as "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." RCA Victor signed him to an exclusive contract, and his subsequent recording of the Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 became the first classical album to sell a million copies. It was the best-selling classical album in the world for more than a decade, eventually going triple-platinum. Cliburn won the 1958 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance for this recording.

In 1962, Cliburn became the artistic advisor for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The competition was founded by a group of Fort Worth, Texas music teachers and volunteers, and its prestige now rivals that of the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Cliburn performed and recorded through the 1970s, but in 1978, after the deaths of his father and manager, began a hiatus from public life.

In 1987, he was invited to perform at the White House for President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and afterwards was invited to open the 100th anniversary season of Carnegie Hall. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush, and, in October of 2004, the Russian Order of Friendship, the two highest civilian awards of the two countries. He was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year.

In 1996 Thomas E. Zaremba filed a palimony suit against Cliburn, claiming that because of "an oral and/or implied partnership agreement," he was entitled to a share of Cliburn's income and property. Zaremba said that he had assisted in the management of Cliburn's career and finances as well as performing domestic services such as helping Cliburn care for his aged mother. Zaremba further alleged that Cliburn may have exposed him to AIDS during their seventeen-year relationship, which lasted until around the end of 1994, after which Zaremba moved to Michigan, where he found work as a mortician.

Cliburn called the accusations "salacious" but otherwise had little to say about the case. Indeed, though always described as gracious and polite, Cliburn is known to be notoriously difficult to interview. Music insiders had long been aware of his homosexuality, and he and Zaremba had appeared together at public functions in Fort Worth, but in Cliburn's thirty-plus years as a celebrity, the press had never linked him romantically with anyone.

The public's image of him was still that of the All-American Boy - he seemed almost frozen in time at the moment of his victory in Moscow. He lived with his mother until her death at 97, is a lifelong Baptist and a regular church-goer, does not drink or smoke, and begins his concerts with The Star-Spangled Banner.

Zaremba's lawsuit was eventually dismissed because of the lack of a written agreement, which is required under Texas law.

Now over 70, he still gives a limited number of performances every year, to critical and popular acclaim. He has played for royalty, heads of state from dozens of countries, and for every President of the United States since Harry Truman. Cliburn currently resides in the Fort Worth suburb of Westover Hills.