Who will cross the finish line at the Cliburn piano competition in Fort Worth?
After five years without the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, it now comes down to four days.
Those four days will tell which half of the six finalists will win a career that takes them around the globe. They were among nearly 400 applicants who vied for a chance to play in the competition, originally scheduled to take place in 2021.
“Compared to last time, five years ago, I think it’s even better,” said Pamela Mia Paul, a piano professor at the University of North Texas who served on the 2017 jury. “The level of playing just is astonishing. Whether you’re talking about the people that didn’t make it out in the first round, or you’re talking about the people that have made it this far, I’ve heard some staggeringly wonderful playing.”
The six finalists, who made it through three rounds, are 18 to 31 year olds from five countries: Belarus, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine and the United States.
For the final round at Bass Hall from June 14 to 18, the finalists will perform two concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop. Those performances will tell the jury: Do they have the sound that carries over a bigger orchestra? Can they project as well as they did in the Mozart concerto?
“At this point, it’s stamina. It’s holding it all together to cross the finish line. It’s the culmination of everything that’s come before,” Paul said.
Preparing a monumental amount of repertoire is no easy feat for the competitors, Paul said. They have to practice several hours of music in a few weeks, without taking any breaks in between performances.
“When they get to Fort Worth and as they move from round to round, they have to have figured out a kind of a practicing strategy so that they know what to be concentrating on in the day or perhaps the day and a half that they might have in between going from one round to the next,” Paul says.
It takes physical, psychological and the emotional endurance to have made it this far in the competition. Vladimir Viardo, who competed at the Cliburn in 1973, said he lost half his hair from the stress of the competition and just wanted to rest after it was over.
“It’s about realizing at some point in the process, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m at the Cliburn and the entire classical piano world is watching me and this is really big.’ It might not hit them the first round or even the second round. But at some point, when they’ve gotten certainly to the semifinals, it must hit them how close they’re getting to the possibility of a dream coming true,” Paul said.
After the finals, medalists will be announced at 7 p.m. Saturday. Jurors will be asked to write down the names of the winners without any deliberation among themselves. At the end, the winners are chosen based on who gets the most votes out of six finalists.
Viardo still remembers the piece of advice his professor gave him for the finals: “If you lose, don’t be too sad. If you win, don’t be too glad.”
The lives of the three winners change completely and instantly, Paul said. Concerts are already set up for the winners so that as soon as awards are announced, they hit the road to play music in the coming weeks.
“It’s not just going to be the pieces that you’ve been very carefully putting together for the Cliburn competition,” Paul said. “And you may or may not have it on your repertoire list, so you really have to be up to going directly into the fire.”
Viardo was terrified after winning the gold medal, when his host Martha Hyder showed him the number of concerts and places he would be performing. Soon after winning, Viardo was detained behind the Iron Curtain for 14 years. When he was finally permitted to travel to the West in the late 1980s, his career flourished with performances at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers.
Cliburn winners are offered management and worldwide concert bookings for three years. The gold medalist will take home $100,000, double the prize from the last competition in 2017. Silver will win $50,000 and bronze will win $25,000.
Who will take home gold, silver and bronze this year?
“Everybody is looking for the artist or artists who touched you, who clearly have something of their own to say,” Paul said. “Who do I want to hear again? Who has the stamina? Who programs beautifully? Who catches people’s imagination?”
Final round schedule
The finalists are:
- Dmytro Choni, 28, of Ukraine
- Anna Geniushene, 31, of Russia
- Uladzislau Khandohi, 20, of Belarus
- Yunchan Lim, 18, of South Korea
- Ilya Shmukler, 27, of Russia
- Clayton Stephenson, 23, of the United States
TUESDAY, JUNE 14
Final Round Concert 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Yunchan Lim – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37
Ilya Shmukler – RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30
20-minute intermission
Clayton Stephenson – GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F Major
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15
Final Round Concert 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Uladzislau Khandohi – RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, op. 18
Anna Geniushene – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, op. 15
20-minute intermission
Dmytro Choni – PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26
FRIDAY, JUNE 17
Final Round Concert 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Clayton Stephenson – RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30
Ilya Shmukler – GRIEG Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 16
20-minute intermission
Yunchan Lim – RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30
SATURDAY, JUNE 18
Final Round Concert 4 at 3 p.m.
Dmytro Choni – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37
Uladzislau Khandohi – CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, op. 11
20-minute intermission
Anna Geniushene – TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, op. 23
Awards ceremony at 7 p.m.
How to watch
Details on a webcast can be found at cliburn.org/2022-webcast. For ticket information, visit cliburn.org/2022-tickets.
From June 14-18, enjoy a series of free community events, including a two-day finale at Sundance Square Plaza with a family festival, concert simulcasts, and a closing party feat. Adonis Rose and the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra.
