Concerts to honor memory of Cliburn

FORT WORTH, Texas — On the one-year anniversary of the death of legendary pianist Van Cliburn, the Texas-based foundation that bears his name will honor his life and contributions to music with a public concert.

The Van Cliburn Memorial Concert will take place 5-8:30 p.m. Feb. 27, the date on which Cliburn died last year, in the new Sundance Square Plaza in downtown Fort Worth.

The outdoor concert will feature performances by eight favorite Cliburn competition prize-winners: gold medalists José Feghali (1985), Simone Pedroni (1993) and Alex Kobrin (2005); silver medalists Antonio Pompa-Baldi (2001), Maxim Philippov (2001) and Yakov Kasman (1997); and award-winners Alexey Koltakov (2001) and Steven Lin (2013).

“Van was a member of the Fort Worth community who belonged to the world,” said Carla Thompson, Cliburn chairman of the board, in a written statement.

The event will be free and open to the public, and it will be streamed live at www.cliburn. org and www.star-telegram.com.

Halfway across the world, in Cliburn’s beloved Russia, he also will be honored with a concert featuring Cliburn competition gold medalists.

The Concert in Memory of Van Cliburn will take place Monday at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, according to the conservatory’s website, and it will feature three Cliburn competition gold medalists.

It was in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory where, in 1958, a 23-year-old Cliburn triumphed at the first Tchaikovsky International Competition. He forever became known as “The Texan Who Conquered Russia.”