Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
Cold War Musical Envoy and Piano Legend Van Cliburn Dies at 78
It was 1958. In the midst of the Cold War, the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Competition took place in Moscow. Amid a climate of fear and mutual suspicion between Americans and Russians, a 23-year-old Texan named Van Cliburn performed a breath-taking rendition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. The Russian crowds cheered. The young American was awarded […]
