Beginning this month, GVSU will welcome to its stage four international piano stars considered to be among the world's best. The young pianists, all medal winners in the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition held this year, will perform in solo recitals beginning October 30.
Kicking off the Van Cliburn Medalist Series at GVSU is Antonio Pompa-Baldi, a 26-year-old silver medalist from Italy. Pompa-Baldi has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe and has recently joined the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory. He will give a performance at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30, in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center.
Pompa-Baldi's performance will be followed by the other silver medalist in this year's competition: Moscow-born Maxim Philippov, performing on February 12, 2002. Gold medal winners Stanislav Ioudenitch, from Uzbekistan, and Olga Kern, from Russia, will perform in concerts in Fall 2002. (Dates TBA.)
The performers will be introduced by Aviram Reichert, a finalist in the previous Cliburn Competition. Israeli-born Reichert, who was awarded a bronze medal in the 1997 competition, recently joined the music faculty at GVSU.
Tickets for the concerts are $30 for the general public; $15 for piano instructors; and $10 for all students. For tickets or information call (616) 895-3484.
[NOTE: Photographs of Pompa-Baldi and the three other performers are available. Call Nancy Willey, 616-895-2221.]
Van Cliburn Piano Competition featured on TV; Cliburn receives national honor
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held every four years, is considered one of the most important music competitions in the world. This year's 11th Competition stepped outside its usual categories by awarding two gold and two silver medals.
Audiences can sample the medalists' performances on television in a
PBS documentary on the piano competition directed by Emmy Award-winner
Peter Rosen and premiering across the nation this month. The
Cliburn: Playing on the Edge explores the personal lives of the
young pianists selected to perform in the world's preeminent piano
competition. It will be broadcast on Michigan PBS stations on the
following dates:
- WGVU-TV (Grand Rapids area) on Sunday, October 21, from 3:30-5 p.m.;
- WTVS-TV (Detroit) on Sunday, October 21, from 4:30-6 p.m.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was begun in 1962 by Fort Worth music teachers and volunteers in celebration of Fort Worth resident Van Cliburn's sensational 1958 victory in the first Tchaikovsky Competition. Today Cliburn continues to act as artistic advisor and guiding spirit behind the competition named for him.
This year, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will recognize Cliburn's lifelong contributions to American culture by awarding him the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor. The 2001 honorees, who along with Cliburn include Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson and Luciano Pavarotti, will be saluted in a two-hour gala event held on December 2, 2001, and broadcast on CBS affiliate stations later that month.
