The Spirit of
Competition

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The competition through the years

Click through to explore the history of The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The competition through the years

Click through to explore the history of The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

1962

Van with Ralph Votapek (United States), the first winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

1962

Contestants from the first competition draw a random number to determine their performing order.

1962

Contestants from the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

1962

First Van Cliburn International Piano Competition poster.

1962

Fort Worth Star-Telegram clipping of Van Cliburn arriving for opening of the contest.

1966

Winner of the Second Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Radu Lupu (Romania).

1969

Van with contestants of Third Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, including winner Cristina Ortiz (Brazil - center).

1973

Winner of the Fourth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Vladimir Viardo (Russia).

1977

Winner of the Fifth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Steven de Groote (South Africa), Artist in Residence at TCU from 1987 to 1989.

1981

Winner of the Sixth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Andre-Michel Schub (United States).

1985

Winner of the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, José Feghali (Brazil) Artist in residence at TCU from 1990 to 2014.

1989

Winner of the Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Alexei Sultanov (Russia).

1993

Winner of the Ninth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Simone Pedroni (Italy).

1997

Van Cliburn awarding Jon Nakamatsu (United States), winner of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

2001

Winners of the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Stanislav Ioudenitch (Uzbekistan) and Olga Kern (Russia).

2005

Winner of the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Alexander Kobrin (Russia).

2009

Winners of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Nobuyuki Tsujii (Japan) and Haochen Zhang (China).

2013

Vadym Kholodenko (Ukraine) after winning the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

2017

Contestants from the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition trying on cowboy hats during orientation.

2017

Yekwon Sunwoo (South Korea) giving his winning performance at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.