Cliburn concert to honor John Giordano

Tuesday at Bass Hall, Jon Nakamatsu will share a very crowded piano keyboard with two others, Haochen Zhang and Andre-Michel Schub.

The three pianists, who will perform a six-hands piece from The Barber of Seville, are past gold medalists at the Cliburn International Piano Competition.

“The three of us scrunched together for The Barber of Seville … It will be a circus,” Nakamatsu, who won Cliburn gold in 1997, said last week. “It will be great, the three of us getting in each other’s way.”

That musical whimsy seems fitting for the occasion. Nakamatsu, Zhang (who won the gold medal in 2009) and Schub (gold in 1981), will join four other Cliburn laureates to celebrate John Giordano, who retired last year after 40 years as the Fort Worth competition’s jury chairman.

The John Giordano Tribute Concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. and will be live-streamed to the Cliburn’s website.

Impact on the Cliburn

Over the decades, Giordano, 76, played a crucial role as the Cliburn evolved into what is arguably the world’s most prestigious competition for young pianists, held at Bass Hall every four years. But what most comes to mind for those who worked with him, they say, is his kindness and unflaggingly sunny disposition.

“He is the person you think he is — so nice, so much fun to be around,” Nakamatsu said. “John Giordano and people like him, they kind of embody the musical spirit of the whole place. They were the Cliburn. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of a concert than him.”

Until his retirement in 2000, Giordano had also served as the longtime conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Those same skills, bringing cohesion to an often disparate ensemble, were put to use shepherding jurors over the years, said Jacques Marquis, the Cliburn’s president and CEO.

“John did that with a lot of talent and a lot of joie de vivre,” Marquis said. “The concert will be in this spirit.”

It is an unprecedented number of Cliburn medalists to perform together in one concert. They also include Joyce Yang (silver medal in 2005), Stanislav Ioudenitch (gold in 2001), Simone Pedroni (gold in 1993) and Vladimir Viardo (gold in 1973). Jose Feghali, the 1985 gold medalist, also had been scheduled to perform. After his death in December, the Cliburn chose not to replace him in the concert.

“How do you say ‘thank you’ to a musician? You offer him music,” Marquis said. “He gave us a list and we got on the phone and we found these seven.”

Last week, an emotional Giordano reflected on his Cliburn tenure. He said he has remained in touch with many of the young pianists he’s helped evaluate over the years.

“It’s very touching, feelings that I can’t really describe,” he said. “That these people would think I had that kind of an impact that they would come back and do something like this.”

For the next Cliburn, in 2017, he will be succeeded by Leonard Slatkin, the internationally renowned conductor who led the Fort Worth Symphony in the finals of the 2013 competition.

But for many who worked with him in Fort Worth, Giordano’s name will always be synonymous with the competition.

“Total commitment, total devotion to the competition,” said Richard Rodzinski, who led the Cliburn from 1986 to 2009. “And he was just an extraordinary human being with whom you could laugh and cry.

“And you could send him to the hotel room of an upset juror in the middle of the night to convince him to stop packing his bags.”

Rodzinski said Giordano’s empathy for both the young musicians and for the difficult decisions faced by jurors inspired the trust of both.

“And it came from a place of deep humanity, deep understanding, and love of music,” Rodzinski said.

End of an era

Giordano’s retirement is the end of an era at the competition. He was a close friend of the competition’s namesake, legendary pianist Van Cliburn, who died of cancer just before the 2013 competition.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the aspects of the Cliburn that were important to me,” Giordano said. “The first is Van, getting to know him, spend time with him, see his honesty and humility.

“It was also a tremendous education for me to spend time with these jurors, people of that artistic level and integrity.”

Giordano’s career with the Cliburn began in 1973, when the previous chairman became ill and Giordano was asked to step in just before the competition began. Giordano was told to devise his own evaluation system.

“This was an hour before the competition started,” Giordano said. “Fortunately, I had been affiliated with a couple of other minor competitions and I had a pretty good idea what to do.

“The system doesn’t really matter when you have honest and good jurors,” he said. “I’ve tried to make this as honest and transparent as possible.”

But Giordano said the dedication and artistry of the young pianists are what he will remember most.

“It was such an education hearing all of these kids, thousands of them, though they’re not kids anymore. Many of them are in their 40s and 50s,” he said. “It gave me great insight into not just the music they were playing, but music making generally.

“Some of them still text me or call me about their troubles, and not always their musical troubles. That’s been the most important thing, the relationships,” he said.

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 7:47 AM with the headline "Cliburn concert to honor John Giordano."