FORT WORTH, Texas, April 13, 2016—2013 Cliburn Competition Finalist Fei-Fei Dong will perform as part of this year’s Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival on Friday, April 15, 2016, at 5 p.m. at Sundance Square Plaza in a 60-minute recital. The performance will be free and open to the public.
The Cliburn also invites Arts Festival attendees to visit the Cliburn “Play Me” Piano Lounge at 2nd & Main Streets in downtown Fort Worth (in front of the Wells Fargo Tower) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily April 14–17, 2016. Located just outside the Cliburn offices, the piano lounge will house a beautiful Steinway & Sons Spirio piano, available for anyone to play. Non-pianists will be able to enjoy cool drinks at nearby cocktail tables while listening to others perform and can also play on the Cliburn’s Giant Floor Piano—like the one featured in the movie “Big.” Piano provided by Steinway & Sons – North Texas / Houston.
ABOUT FEI-FEI DONG
Praised for her ”bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches” (The Plain Dealer), Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong was a top six finalist at the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a winner of the 2014 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition. She continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News). The 2015–2016 season includes a number of prominent engagements, including New York City debut recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall, as well as recitals for the Gilmore Rising Stars Series and St. Vincent College Concert Series; concerto engagements with the Lexington and Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic Orchestras; and summer appearances in Bravo! Vail Valley, Highlands Chamber Music, and Lake George Music Festivals. Committed to chamber music, she formed the Aletheia Piano Trio in 2013, and the group has debuted at the Kennedy Center, Rose Studio, and Alice Tully Hall. Deeply invested in sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, Ms. Dong also engages students and audiences through school and outreach concerts and master classes.
ABOUT 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 quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is widely-recognized as “one of the world’s highest-visibility classical-music contests” (Dallas Morning News) and remains committed to its original ideals of supporting and launching the careers of young pianists, age 18 to 30 (fifteenth edition May 25–June 10, 2017). It shares the transformative powers of music with a wide global audience, through fully-produced webcasts and by providing commission-free, comprehensive career management and concert bookings to its winners. Rounding out its mission, the Cliburn also produces the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival for exceptional 13 to 17-year-old pianists (inaugural edition June 21–28, 2015; second edition 2019) and the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition for outstanding non-professional pianists age 35 and older (seventh edition June 19–25, 2016).
Over a four-year cycle, the Cliburn contributes to North Texas’ cultural landscape with over 170 classical music performances for 150,000 attendees, through competitions, free community concerts, and its signature Cliburn Concerts series at Bass Performance Hall, the Kimbell Art Museum Piano Pavilion, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. It presents 1,000 in-school, interactive music education programs for more than 200,000 area elementary students. During the same time period, it garners the world’s attention with over one million visits from 170 nations for live concert and competition webcasts; 300 concerts worldwide booked for competition winners; more than 5,000 news articles about the Cliburn and its winners; regular national radio broadcasts to 245 public radio stations; and a PBS documentary airing in a potential 105 million households.
Detailed information about the Cliburn and its programs is available at Cliburn.org.
Cliburn Sponsors are:
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Arts Council of Fort Worth
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust
The Pangburn Foundation, J.P. Morgan, Trustee
ExxonMobil / XTO Energy
Mercedes T. Bass Charitable Corporation
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
Exclusive Print Media Sponsor:
Star-Telegram
Official Piano of the Cliburn:
Steinway & Sons – North Texas / Houston
Official Hotel of the Cliburn:
Worthington Renaissance Fort Worth Hotel
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