Van Cliburn

1934 – 2013

Sixty years ago Van Cliburn, then a 23-year-old pianist from Texas, stormed to success at the inaugural Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition. His victory contradicted the Cold War script of Soviet cultural superiority and handed a propaganda coup to the West. He was welcomed home as a hero with a ticker-tape parade in New York – the only musician ever to receive the honour; four years later, in 1962, a competition was established in his name that reflected his artistic ethos, with an emphasis on launching careers.