FORT WORTH, Texas, April 1, 2014—Applications for the First Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival are online now at Cliburn.org. The brand new program—a competition and festival for 13 to 17-year-old pianists—will take place June 21–28, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas in Ed Landreth Auditorium and PepsiCo Hall on the campus of TCU. Applications are due January 9, 2015. Applicants must have been born on or between June 28, 1997, and June 21, 2002.
1997 Cliburn Gold Medalist, in-demand touring artist, and esteemed adjudicator Jon Nakamatsu will serve as jury chairman, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will perform with each of three finalists under the baton of dynamic conductor Mei-Ann Chen. Competition performances will be webcast live at Cliburn.org.
“This will be a competition that will help us establish relationships with the top international talent at an earlier age,” said Jacques Marquis, Cliburn president and CEO, “but, just as importantly, this will be another means for the Cliburn to use its standing and expertise to encourage tomorrow’s great artists. We are providing a valuable forum for them to express themselves and an entrance to the next step of their journeys. The top international jurors, the media and webcast, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the festival atmosphere—which will include performance experience and professional career advice—all make the Competition and Festival significantly useful for a student who has aspirations of being a professional musician.”
A screening jury will select 24 competitors through online applications and video submissions, which will be 15 to 20 minutes in length and include one étude, one movement of a Classical sonata, and one expressive Romantic work. (Works performed in screening videos can be repeated during Competition rounds, but no works can be repeated within Competition rounds.) Competitors will be announced to the public on March 20, 2015.
The Junior Competition will consist of four rounds:
PRELIMINARY ROUND—24 pianists, each performing a 20-minute recital to include a movement of a Classical sonata and a virtuosic étude.
QUARTERFINAL ROUND—12 pianists, each performing a 30-minute recital to include a Bach Prelude and Fugue and an expressive Romantic work.
SEMIFINAL ROUND—6 pianists, each performing a 40-minute recital (to include a modern/contemporary work) and one concerto movement with piano accompaniment.
FINAL ROUND—3 pianists, each performing one complete concerto with orchestra.
Specific repertoire requirements can be found HERE.
Complete rules and requirements can be found HERE.
Competition Rounds will be open to the public; tickets will go on sale in early 2015.
The competitors will be housed on campus at TCU for the duration of the Competition and Festival. The Cliburn’s distinctive and dedicated volunteer force will support the event in areas such as hospitality, transportation, publicity, ushering, and gift shop—including a significant commitment of time from the Junior League of Fort Worth, the Cliburn’s partner since 1966.
The prizes for the First Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in 2015 will be:
FIRST PRIZE: $10,000 cash plus $2,000 scholarship
SECOND PRIZE: $5,000 cash plus $2,000 scholarship
THIRD PRIZE: $2,500 cash plus $2,000 scholarship
A portion of the prize ($2,000 for each of the three finalists, as noted above) is related to furthering musical advancement. If one or any of the top three prizewinners does not make a suitable proposal for the use of the scholarship money within one year of the Competition, that winner forfeits this portion of the prize, at the discretion of the president and CEO of the Cliburn. All three top prizes will also include community residency and mentorship opportunities with the Cliburn. Other special prizes will be announced closer to the Competition dates.
The Cliburn will offer a variety of events aimed at the artistic advancement of the competitors and other pianists—seminars, symposia, chamber music collaborations, and more—as well as at sharing the gifts of elite young pianists with the community, through free recitals across Fort Worth. Schedule to be announced in 2015.
With this new addition, the Cliburn’s four-year cycle evolves to:
YEAR ONE—Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
(For pianists 18 to 30; held May 24–June 9, 2013)
YEAR TWO— Non-competition year
(Focus on winners career management and growing local programs)
YEAR THREE—Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival
(For pianists 13 to 17; to be held June 21–28, 2015)
YEAR FOUR—International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs
(For amateur pianists 35 and older; to be held in summer 2016)
In addition to the competitions, the Cliburn produces a host of annual events and outreach activities, including Cliburn Concerts, Musical Awakenings® education programs, and free community concerts.
JON NAKAMATSU
Since his dramatic 1997 Cliburn gold medal triumph, Jon Nakamatsu's brilliant but unassuming musicianship and eclectic repertoire have made him a clear favorite throughout the world both on the concert circuit and in the recording studio.
Mr. Nakamatsu maintains a very active touring schedule with orchestra performances, chamber collaborations, and solo recitals, performing widely in North America, Europe, and the Far East. In past seasons, he has been soloist with many leading orchestras including those of Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo, and Vancouver, with such conductors as James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Marek Janowski, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Osmo Vänskä. His extensive recital tours throughout the United States and Europe have featured appearances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London, and Milan, among other major music capitals. Numerous summer festival engagements have included appearances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Sun Valley, and Britt festivals.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated with the Brentano, Tokyo, Prazak, St. Lawrence, and Ying String Quartets, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Together with the acclaimed clarinetist Jon Manasse, he tours regularly as part of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo.
Mr. Nakamatsu records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released nine CDs to date. In 1999, he was invited to the White House to perform for President and Mrs. Clinton.
MEI-ANN CHEN
“I am very honored to take part in the inaugural edition of the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival in June 2015, and to conduct the Final Round. The Cliburn has created a wonderful new competition, which continues to perpetuate the legendary late Van Cliburn’s legacy and the borderless appeal of classical music. I look forward to working with incredible young artists who have tremendous potential for major careers in the near future,” said Mei-Ann Chen.
An innovative and passionate force both on and off the conductor’s podium, Mei-Ann Chen is one of America’s most dynamic young conductors. Music Director of the Memphis Symphony since 2010 and of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, she has infused both orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level music-making, galvanizing their audiences and communities alike. In recognition of these accomplishments, the League of American Orchestras granted her the prestigious Helen M. Thompson Award at its 2012 national conference in Dallas.
A sought-after guest conductor, Ms. Chen’s reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in growing popularity with orchestras both nationally and internationally. Among her North American credits are engagements with the Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras. Overseas, she has been engaged to guest-conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Austria's Gross OrchesterGraz, Brazil's São Paulo Symphony, Finland's Tampere Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic in the Concertgebouw, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the Trondheim Symphony. U.S. summer music festival credits include the Aspen, Britt, Grand Teton, Wintergreen, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Texas Music Festivals.
Ms. Chen’s skill on the podium and as a music educator has been recognized with several honors and awards. In 2005, she became the first woman to win Copenhagen’s esteemed Malko Competition. In 2002, she was unanimously selected as music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Oregon, the oldest of its kind and a model for many youth orchestras in the United States. During her five-year tenure with the orchestra, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall, received an ASCAP award for innovative programming, and developed new and unique musicianship programs for the orchestra’s members. She was also the recipient of a Sunburst Award from Young Audiences for her contribution to music education.
FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Since its beginnings in 1912, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) has been an essential thread in the city’s cultural fabric and the very foundation of Fort Worth’s performing arts. Today, the FWSO is one of the most successful orchestras in the United States, performing an impressive 200 concerts each year for an audience of 250,000 adults and children from all walks of life. Nearing his 15th season, Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya has transformed the FWSO into an ensemble that is recognized and admired the world over for its artistic excellence and commitment to community engagement.
As the principal resident company of the acoustically superb Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, the orchestra performs a broad range of symphonic and pops concerts and is admired nationally for the strength and uniqueness of its collaborations with other organizations including the Fort Worth Opera, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the Children's Education Program of Bass Performance Hall, and various local professional choruses. The orchestra’s annual summer music festival, Concerts in the Garden, has grown to be one of the largest and most successful summer outdoor festivals of its kind in Texas, attracting an annual audience of nearly 45,000.
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is also a national leader in music education. Adventures in Music, the orchestra’s education and outreach program, inspires, educates and entertains more than 65,000 children through more than 100 engaging programs each year in Fort Worth and across the state of Texas.
THE CLIBURN
The Cliburn advances classical piano music throughout the world. Its international competitions, education programs, and concert series embody an enduring commitment to artistic excellence and the discovery of new artists.
Established in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is widely-recognized as “one of the world’s highest-visibility classical-music contests” and remains committed to its original ideals of supporting and launching the careers of young pianists and sharing the transformative powers of music with a wide global audience. The Fourteenth Cliburn Competition, held May 24–June 9, 2013, in Fort Worth, Texas, welcomed 30 competitors, aged 19–30 and representing 13 nations. Beyond the over 40,000 who enjoyed the Competition in person at Bass Performance Hall, the fully-produced webcast streamed over 13 million minutes of video to more than 170,000 unique viewers in 155 countries.
In addition to cash and other prizes, the six winners of the competition receive three years of commission-free career management, with the Cliburn arranging and providing full artist services for hundreds of engagements. Extensive media coverage for the winners is generated through a documentary, national and international radio broadcasts, publicity efforts with media worldwide, and recordings with label harmonia mundi usa.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Cliburn promotes great music and world-class artists through the annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches 47,000 elementary school students each year 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.”
Detailed information about the Cliburn and its programs is available at Cliburn.org.
Official Sponsors of the Cliburn are:
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of America, Trustee
Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
BNSF Railway Foundation
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust
Edith Winther Grace Charitable Trust, J.P. Morgan, Trustee
Jane and John Justin Foundation
Mercedes T. Bass Charitable Corporation
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
The Burnett Foundation
Exclusive Print Media Sponsor:
Star-Telegram
Exclusive Radio Station:
WRR 101.1 FM
Official Airline:
American Airlines
Official Piano:
Steinway & Sons
# # #
