Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition took place in Fort Worth, Texas from May 22 to June 7, 2009. The competitors were selected by a screening jury during screening auditions that took place in January and February 2009. The Takács Quartet performed with the semifinalists, while the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon accompanied the finalists.

At the suggestion of composer John Corigliano, a 25-member nominating committee of distinguished musicians issued invitations to noted American composers to submit solo piano scores 8 to 12 minutes in length. Original works by American composers John Musto, Mason Bates, and Daron Hagen were chosen.

Competitors can meet Van Cliburn, a famous American pianist, who came in first place at the Tchaikovsky competition that took place in Moscow, Russia.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is a quadrennial competition hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. The first competition took place September 24-October 7, 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas.

(* denotes members of screening audition jury)

Award	Winner(s)	Benefits
First Prize (Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal)	Haochen Zhang Nobuyuki Tsujii (tie)	cash award of US $20,000 each International concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi usa label contribution towards domestic and international air travel on American Airlines during the three-year concert tours performance attire provided by Neiman Marcus silver trophy cup
Second Prize (Silver Medal)	Yeol Eum Son	cash award of US $20,000 U.S. concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi usa label
Third Prize (Crystal Award)	not awarded
Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance(s) of Chamber Music	Evgeni Bozhanov and Yeol Eum Son	cash award of US $3,000 each
Beverly Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work	Nobuyuki Tsujii	cash award of US $5,000
John Giordano Jury Chairman Discretionary Award	Alessandro Deljavan	cash award of US $4,000
Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award	Lukáš Vondráček	cash award of US $4,000
Jury Discretionary Award	Eduard Kunz	cash award of US $4,000
Internet Voter Award	Mariangela Vacatello (23.9%) Nobuyuki Tsujii (22.6%) Yeol Eum Son (15.9%)

Shanghai - Shanghai Conservatory, He Lu Ting Concert Hall, January 15–17, 2009

Hanover - Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, January 20–24, 2009

Saint Petersburg - N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, January 26–27, 2009

Lugano - Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana, February 1–3, 2009

New York - Rockefeller University, February 12–14, 2009

Fort Worth, Texas - Texas Christian University, February 21–24, 2009

Fort Worth, Texas - Bass Performance Hall, May 22–26, 2009

Like previous Cliburn Competitions, a competition documentary was produced called A Surprise in Texas, directed by Peter Rosen who directed several previous Cliburn documentaries. It premiered on April 11, 2010 at the Dallas International Film Festival and was broadcast nationwide in the USA on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television starting on September 1, 2010.^[1][2]

• Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition website Archived 2008-12-18 at the Wayback Machine