Auditions for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition kicked off Sunday. These rounds are entirely free and open to the public. I walked into TCU’s Walsh Center for Performing Arts unprepared for the Pepsico Recital Hall. It is one of the most unique and intriguing performance spaces I’ve been to. The orangey-brown geometric wood façade, with mid-century lighting affixed to the walls, felt like a perfect setting to explore music from the past with the artists of the future.
The rounds continue through Saturday, with 77 performers vying for 30 slots in the competition, which starts in May. That works out to roughly 12 performers a day. The Cliburn web site lists the schedule and other details.
Looking around the room, the crowd was as varied as the music listed in the program in my hand: A group fresh off their Sunday morning church obligations; A family with stairstep children; TCU students taking a break from their own rehearsals. Others were clearly just out on a walk and found the signs on the lawn and followed them inside
Five judges paraded in with coffees in hand, accompanied by Cliburn top brass whom I recognized: Jacques Marquis, Cliburn president and CEO; Sandra Doen, director of artist planning and Maggie Estes, director of communication
We were all there for the same thing: to experience unexpected talent, hoping that the next worldwide piano phenom was waiting behind the maroon and blue curtain.
In the front row I spotted Mary, a veteran Cliburn attendee and avid WRR listener whom I had just met in the lobby.
She had shown me her notes from the Sunday afternoon program, earlier. An amateur judge’s impressions, but with a pro tip: bring a pen.
As the evening program began Sunday, the audience did get something unexpected. The lights dimmed and a 7-foot-tall frame walked out from behind the curtain, one of the Chinese contestants, Jack Gao. He adjusted the piano bench as tall as it could go, and with his knees pressed against the front of the Steinway, he made the rare and audacious choice to play an original work.
Other pieces on the program included lots of Liszt, Scriabin and Stravinsky, Haydn and Beethoven, with competitors from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Spain, Turkey, Taiwan, China, and the United States. The remaining contestants continue to take the state through Saturday, performing in blocks from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Come join me Tuesday at TCU.
Auditions for the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition continue through Saturday. Details.
