Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr.
Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr. was one of the most prominent American concert pianists of the twentieth century, known for winning the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 at age twenty-three. Born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, Cliburn received his earliest piano lessons from his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan, who had studied with Arthur Friedheim (a student of Franz Liszt). At seventeen, he moved to New York to study at Juilliard with the renowned Rosina Lhévinne, earning a diploma in 1954. In 1952, Cliburn won the International Chopin Competition at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. At twenty, Cliburn won the Leventritt Award and made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic under Dimitri Mitropoulos.
His achievement in Moscow at the International Tchaikovsky Competition is considered a major cultural triumph during the height of the Cold War. Cliburn’s performance at the competition finale of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes. He also earned the friendship of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and an enduring fan base in Russia and throughout the world. He returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honor had been accorded to a classical musician.
From the late 1950s until the mid-1970s, Cliburn was a major force in classical music across the globe. He studied conducting with Bruno Walter, and toured the world on behalf of the U.S. State Department. His 1958 RCA recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was the first classical recording to sell a million copies and go platinum.
In 1962, arts patrons and business leaders in Fort Worth, Texas, honored their hometown hero by inaugurating the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which is held every four years. Cliburn received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush, and, in 2004, the Russian Order of Friendship. Cliburn’s 1958 piano performance in Moscow at the International Tchaikovsky Competition has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for long-term preservation.