Date and Time:
Friday, October 7, 2005 at 7:30 p.m.

Single Tickets:
$10, 15, 25, 35, 47 (discounts available for seniors, youth, and groups)

Season Ticket Packages:
This concert is part of the Artist Series and Classic Artist Series season ticket packages.

Location:
Macky Auditorium

Running Time:
1.5 to 2 hours

Preconcert Conversation:
Professor of Piano Alejandro Cremaschi at 6:45 p.m. in Macky Room 102

Master Class:
October 6 at 2 p.m., Grusin Music Hall

Event Overview:
Once every four years the international classical music world focuses on a special event of high drama and fierce rivalry — the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. This year’s competition took place May 20th through June 5th, 2005 and Russia's Alexander Kobrin was declared the gold medalist. Come to Macky to experience for yourself the artistry of this year’s winner.

Program:
HAYDN - Sonata in F major, Hob. XVI:29
HAYDN - Sonata in E minor, Hob. XVI:34
SCHUMANN - Kinderszenen, Op. 15
RACHMANINOFF - Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33
RACHMANINOFF - Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op. 42

Artist Bio:
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.

Van Cliburn’s first-prize performance at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 sent the nation into a gleeful victory celebration that culminated in the first, and only, Manhattan ticker-tape parade for a classical artist.  It also opened the door to a new era of musical and cultural relations between East and West.  Celebrating this remarkable achievement, a group of music teachers and citizens from Fort Worth, Texas created the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.  First held in 1962, and conducted every four years since, the Van Cliburn Competition has established itself as a joyous festival dedicated to the discovery of the world’s finest young pianists.

From the hundreds of applications received for the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 147 pianists representing thirty-three countries have been chosen to perform public concerts in Utrecht (the Netherlands), St. Petersburg (Russia), Lugano (Italy), New York City, and Fort Worth.  These live screening recitals, attended by five of the jurors who will later comprise part of the distinguished jury for the Twelfth Competition, will select the group of thirty pianists invited to participate at the competition in Fort Worth from May 20-June 5, 2005.  The six finalists will be heard in three different recital programs, chamber music with the Grammy-award winning Takács quartet, as well as two concerti performances with the Fort Worth Symphony under the direction of Maestro James Conlon.  At the Awards Ceremony on June 5, 2005, hosted by internationally renowned actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, the medalists will be named and awarded three years of concert tours and management along with CD recordings released by harmonia mundi usa in addition to significant cash prizes.

Links:
www.cliburn.org