“It is the rise of the South Koreans at this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition,” writes Andrea Ahles in Tuesday’s (3/7) Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas). “Of the 30 competitors who have been selected to participate in the 15th edition of the quadrennial piano competition in Fort Worth, five are from the small Asian nation…. ‘South Korea is extremely strong in music,’ said Cliburn Chief Executive Jacques Marquis…. The field also includes six competitors from Russia, including the only two returning for a second time from the 2013 competition.… Two hundred and ninety pianists applied to compete in the Cliburn, submitting 40-minute videos [to] a five-member screening jury…. The 30 competitors … will come to Fort Worth for the competition May 25-June 10…. There are 21 men and 9 women competing in the 2017 competition, which Marquis says is a similar ratio to the 200 male and 100 female applicants the Cliburn received. Four pianists hail from the United States. Marquis said the application pool was the largest the competition has ever seen, which he attributes to the foundation increasing its international presence with the amateur and junior competitions and the webcast of the 2013 competition.”
Posted March 7, 2017
