Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. His mother, named Rildia Bee O'Bryan, had been taught piano by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. Cliburn began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, who was strict and demanded perfection. At the age of twelve Cliburn won a piano competition in Texas and made his debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. At the age of twenty he made his debut at Carnegie Hall. In 1958 Cliburn won the First International Tshaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. There he played the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff in his triumphal competition finale performances. Cliburn's mastery of piano was so convincing that even Nikita Khrushchev agreed, when the Soviet judges asked him for permission to give the first prize to an American. Cliburn was on the cover of TIME as "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." He made a fine r