RUSSIA’S ALEXANDER KOBRIN TAKES THE GOLD MEDAL
AT THE TWELFTH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
KOREA’S JOYCE YANG, 19, THE COMPETITION’S YOUNGEST
ENTRANT, IS AWARDED SILVER MEDAL, BEST CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE,
AND BEST PERFORMANCE OF A NEW WORK
CHINA’S SA CHEN WINS CRYSTAL AWARD
FORT WORTH, Texas, June 6, 2005 – The winners of the Twelfth
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were announced yesterday
evening. The announcement was made by Mr. Van Cliburn during the
Awards Ceremony at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance
Hall, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The winners are:
GOLD MEDALIST:
Mr. Alexander Kobrin, 25 (Russia)
The First Prize includes the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold
Medal; a cash award of $20,000; international and national concert
tours and career management for the three concert seasons following
the Competition; a compact disc recording on harmonia mundi usa;
performance attire provided by Neiman Marcus; and contribution
towards domestic and international air travel on American Airlines.
SILVER MEDALIST:
Ms. Joyce Yang, 19 (S. Korea)
The Second Prize includes a cash award of $20,000; U.S. concert
tours and career management for the three concert seasons following
the Competition; and a compact disc recording on harmonia mundi
usa.
CRYSTAL AWARD
Ms. Sa Chen, 25 (China)
The Third Prize includes a cash award of $20,000; U.S. concert
tours and career management for the three concert seasons following
the Competition; and a compact disc recording on harmonia mundi
usa.
Finalists (in alpha order):
Mr. Davide Cabassi, 28 (Italy)
Ms. Chu-Fang Huang, 22 (China)
Mr. Roberto Plano, 26 (Italy)
Finalists receive a cash award of $10,000 each, and U.S. concert
tours and career management for the three concert seasons following
the Competition.
Additional prizes awarded to the participants of the Twelfth Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition include:
Beverely Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New
Work:
Ms. Joyce Yang, 19 (S. Korea)
Cash award of $5,000.
Jury Discretionary Award (Each receives a $4,000 cash award):
Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award
Ms. Maria Mazo, 22 (Germany/Russia)
Additional awards funded by Bell Helicopter a Textron Company
and the Neal Steffen Memorial Foundation
Ms. Jie Chen, 19 (China)
Mr. Sodi Braide, 29 (Nigeria/UK)
Ms. Gabriela Martinez, 21 (Venezuela)
Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber
Music
(Cash award of $6,000):
Ms. Joyce Yang, 19 (S. Korea)
Internet Audience Prize:
Also for the first time, during the final phase of the Competition,
internet users were able to cast a vote for their favorite pianist.
The internet audience prize, presented by Apple, is a 60GB iPod
Photo, engraved with his/her name and loaded with digital photos
of his/her winning performances at the Competition. Apple will
also offer a 20GB engraved iPod to the other 5 finalists. Nearly
3000 votes were cast from around the world. The winner of the
internet audience prize is: Mr. Alexander Kobrin, 25 (Russia)
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Documentary:
A documentary of the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition,
directed by French filmmaker Andy Sommer, will premiere on PBS
stations across the country on Monday, October 3, 2005. KERA-Dallas/Fort
Worth will present the 90-minute film, “In the Heart of
Music,” through PBS before the documentary is distributed
worldwide.
First Professional Appearances by the Medalists:
The medalists will make their first official appearances performing
their winning concertos at Concerts in the Garden, Friday, June
10, 2005 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Fort Worth
under music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
Next Steps for the Medalists:
The Cliburn Competition, functions as the ultimate audition, showcasing
the world’s most promising young pianists over two and a
half weeks of thrilling music-making. The emerging six finalists
are provided with a unique opportunity to share hundreds of concert
engagements throughout the United States and Europe. During these
17 days in Fort Worth, the young contestants played various works
in three phases of Competition—solo works, chamber music,
and concertos.
Coordinated by the Van Cliburn Foundation on a commission-free
basis, the contracted tour dates during the three years following
the Competition have a combined value estimated at more than $1,000,000.
Winners will be managed by the Van Cliburn Foundation in the United
States and by IMG Artists in Europe.
The Road to the Cliburn Competition:
The process of entering the competition began in October 2004,
when 270 pianists from all over the world applied. From that group,
147 pianists from thirty-four countries were invited to audition.
Auditions were held in Utrecht, Netherlands; St. Petersburg, Russia;
Lugano, Switzerland; New York City, and Fort Worth. The five-person
screening jury consisted of John Giordano, Marcello Abbado, Thomas
Frost, Yoheved Kaplinsky (chair of the Piano Department of the
Juilliard School of Music), and Jürgen Meyer-Josten.
On March 1, the thirty-five winning pianists were announced—nineteen
women and sixteen men. For the first time in the history of the
Competition more women than men were selected. The pianists range
in age from nineteen to thirty, and represent thirteen countries:
Australia (1), Canada (1), China
(8), Germany (1), Israel (1), Italy (4), Lithuania (1), Russia
(6), South
Korea (2), United Kingdom (1), Ukraine (3), United States (5),
and Venezuela
(1).
Following entry to the Competition, the medalists had to play
three rounds of Competition: The first round included a 50-minute
recital. The second round required a 60-minute recital and a chamber
music performance with the Takacs Quartet. In the final round
the competitors performed another 50-minute recital as well as
two concertos, accompanied by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
conducted by James Conlon.
Competition Jurors:
This year’s Competition jury consisted of eleven members:
Maestro JOHN GIORDANO: chairman, conductor and Music Director,
Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra; Mr. MARCELLO ABBADO: pianist,
composer, and administrator; Mr. PETER COSSÉ: producer,
lecturer, administrator; Mr. RICHARD DYER: writer and music critic
for the Boston Globe; Mr. CLAUDE FRANK: pianist and teacher; Mr.
THOMAS FROST: recording producer; Ms. ZHOU GUANGREN: pianist and
magazine editor; Mr. JOSEPH KALICHSTEIN: pianist, teacher, administrator;
Mr. JÜRGEN MEYER-JOSTEN: administrator and pianist; Mr. MENAHEM
PRESSLER: pianist and teacher; Mr. TADEUSZ STRUGALA: conductor.
Live Internet Broadcast and On-line Voting:
For the first time in its history, the Van Cliburn International
Piano
Competition offered streaming audio and video of the competition
in real time through its website, www.cliburn.org. The website
offered unlimited access to internet users all over the world
who watched and listen to performances, and view text on the repertoire
and performers. By the end of the competition, more than 10,000
people had registered to view the streaming from countries as
diverse as Zambia, Thailand, Christmas Island, China, Peru, Turkey,
and many other countries in Europe, Asia and South America. The
on-line audience voted during the finals to determine the Internet
Audience Prize.
Cliburn Competition Blog:
Two bloggers were invited to cover the competition and to report
on their experiences from the audience’s point of view.
By the end of the competition, more than 70,000 entries were recorded
from the on-line audience reading the blog. Mike Winter covered
the preliminaries from May 20 to May 24, and Carl Tait, a past
Cliburn Amateur Competition participant, covered the semifinals
and finals from May 25 to June 5. The blog was available through
the website and readers were invited to write to the bloggers
with comments. The blog will remain archived and available for
viewing following the competition. For additional information,
please visit
www.cliburn.org.
FINALIST BIOGRAPHIES
Davide Cabassi, Italy, 28
Davide Cabassi made his orchestral debut at the age of thirteen
with the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Milan. He has also collaborated
with the Munich Philharmonic, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen,
and the Russian Chamber Philharmonic, as well as with several
Italian orchestras. In recital, he has been engaged by most of
the prominent musical associations of his native country, including
Serate Musicali in Milan and Festival Pianistico in Brescia and
Bergamo. Abroad, Mr. Cabassi has played concerts in Austria,
China, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Scandinavia, and Switzerland.
After graduating from Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory,
he spent five years as one of the few select students at the International
Piano Foundation in Cadenabbia, Italy, where he studied with Karl
Schnabel, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, and
William Grant Naboré, among others. In
December 2004, Mr. Cabassi recorded a solo disc for BMG records
called Dancing with the Orchestra, and featuring works by Bartók,
De Falla, Ravel, and Stravinsky. He is on the faculty of the Istituto
Musicale “G. Puccini” in Gallarate, Italy.
Sa Chen, China, 25
Born into a musical family in Henan, China, Sa Chen shares with
Lang Lang and Yundi Li the distinction of being named one of the
top three Chinese virtuoso pianists today by the legendary artist
and teacher Fou Ts'Ong: "I will be happy if they do better
than me." She has collaborated with the Berne, City of Birmingham,
Shanghai, and Latvian Symphony Orchestras, as well as the China,
Israel, Strasbourg, and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras. A frequent
guest artist in China and Japan, she has also appeared in recital
and festival engagements in Basel, Berlin, Copenhagen, London,
Milan, Minneapolis, Sydney, and Vancouver. She was invited to
perform with Gidon Kremer and Nicolaj Znaider at the Kronberg
and Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festivals, and was soloist with the
Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra at the re-opening concert of the
legendary Shanghai Concert Hall this season. Sa Chen's debut disc
Chopin Impression was released in 2003 under the JVC label.
Chu-Fang Huang, China, 22
At the age of twelve, Chu-Fang Huang was accepted on full scholarship
as the youngest student in the Shenyang Music Conservatory’s
pre-college division. Two months after moving to the United States
in 1998 at the age of fifteen, she made her U.S. recital debut
on the Prodigy Series of the La Jolla Music Society. A top prizewinner
at several recent national and international
competitions, she has performed throughout China, Europe, and
the United States, including recitals at Germany’s Klavier
Festival Ruhr, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Kravis Arts
Center in West Palm Beach, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital
Hall. Ms. Huang has also collaborated with the Charleston, Fort
Collins, Fort Worth, Pacific, and Sydney Symphony Orchestras,
as well as with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Illinois
and Shenzheng Philharmonic Orchestras. She is a passionate reader
who enjoys novels, comic books, CD inserts, and the dictionary.
Alexander Kobrin, Russia, 25
First-prize winner of the 1999 Busoni Competition and second-prize
winner of the 2003 Hamamatsu Competition (with no first prize
awarded), Alexander Kobrin has toured extensively throughout Europe,
South America, and Asia. He has performed with the Moscow Virtuosi,
the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
the Virtuosi of Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow State
Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include collaborations
with the Rio Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber, the
Osaka, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, in addition to a recital
at the 2004 Chopin Festival in Duszniki. This spring, Mr. Kobrin
toured Italy and Japan while completing his graduate studies at
the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the direction of Lev
Naumov.
Roberto Plano, Italy, 26
Winner of the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition,
Roberto Plano has performed engagements throughout the United
States, including his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall.
He has also performed at the Sala Verdi in Milan, the Herkulessaal
and Gasteig in Munich, and the Salle Cortot in Paris. Among orchestras
with which he has collaborated are the Sendai Philharmonic (Japan),
the Rheinland-Pfalz Staatsphilharmonie (Germany), the Valencia
Symphony (Spain), and the Akron and Spokane Symphony Orhestras
in the United States. Recent festival appearances include the
Chopin in Duznicki, Poland; Stresa Festival, Italy; and the Williamstown
International Piano Festival. Mr. Plano has recorded two discs,
the most recent devoted to solo works by Franz Liszt for the Azica
Label. He has been the guest artist on a number of noted radio
stations, which include NPR, as a guest on Performance Today;
WNYC New York; WGBH Boston; and RadioRai 3 in Italy. Also
an organist at his hometown church (Varese), he has composed several
hymns for the choir.
Joyce Yang, S. Korea, 19
The youngest of the Twelfth Cliburn Competition participants,
Joyce Yang received her first piano as a birthday present from
her aunt when she was four and immediately took to the instrument.
After winning several national competitions in Korea, she moved
to the United States to begin studies at Juilliard’s pre-college
division. Her victory at the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield
Competition for students led to her debut with that orchestra
at the Academy of Music when she was thirteen. She has since performed
with the Baltimore, Corpus Christi, Knoxville, and National Symphony
Orchestras, as well as the Long Island and Reno Philharmonic
Orchestras and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. In recital, Ms.
Yang has been presented by the La Jolla Music Society, the Gilmore
Keyboard Festival, and Ravinia’s Rising Stars series, among
others. An avid chamber musician, she is a regular guest artist
of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.
