Cliburn, Van (1934-2013), was an American concert pianist. Cliburn first gained worldwide fame in 1958, when he won the Tchaikovsky International Competition for piano in Moscow. During his career, he concentrated on works written primarily by Romantic composers of the 1800’s and 1900’s. These composers included Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Robert Schumann, and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Cliburn was born on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and moved to Texas with his family at the age of six. His full name was Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. His mother began teaching him to play the piano when he was 3 years old. Cliburn studied piano at the Juilliard School in New York City. He made his concert debut in Houston in 1947 but did not begin an active concert career until 1954. In 1978, he stopped giving concerts, but he resumed performing in public in 1989. Cliburn died on Feb. 27, 2013.
