Van Cliburn
| Van Cliburn | |
|---|---|
Cliburn in 1966
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. |
| Also known as | Van Cliburn |
| Born |
July 12, 1934 Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | February 27, 2013 (aged 78) Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
| Genres | Classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1946–2013 |
| Labels | RCA Red Seal |
| Website | Official website |
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (/ˈklaɪbɜːrn/; July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, at the age of 23, when he won the inaugural quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow during the Cold War.
His mother, an accomplished pianist and piano teacher, discovered him playing at age three and mimicking one of her students. She arranged for him to start taking lessons. He developed a rich, round tone and a singing voice-like phrasing, having been taught from the start to sing each piece.
Van Cliburn toured domestically and overseas. He played for royalty, heads of state, and every U.S. president from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.
Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the son of Rildia Bee (née O'Bryan) and Harvey Lavan Cliburn Sr. At age three, he began taking piano lessons from his mother, who had studied under Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. When Cliburn was six, his father, who worked in the oil industry, moved the family to Kilgore, Texas near Longview.
At age 12, he won a statewide piano competition, which enabled him to debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He entered the Juilliard School in New York City at the age of seventeen and studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of the great Russian romantics. At age twenty, Cliburn won the Leventritt Award and made his Carnegie Hall debut.
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