I got to the Pepsico Recital Hall early one morning this week, when the day’s first competitors were still warming their fingers in nearby practice rooms. Cliburn staff were trickling into the building, all surpirsingly cheery, despite just leaving this place about 9 hours ago.
The reason for my early arrival, my secret mission, was to infiltrate, unnoticed, the restricted jury balcony area of the hall. I’d received permission days ago to explore the hall freely. But my heart raced as I walked through the double swinging doors silently, out onto the dimly lit balcony, just narrow enough to seat a single row of chairs, spaced widely apart.
Here dwell the judges, five shadowy figures who have loomed over the recital hall all week. Sitting in the audience below, you can easily sense how aware the competitors must be, from the moment they set foot on stage, and with every note they play, of these five mysterious adversaries above.
The jury includes Japanese pianist Momo Kodama; 1985 Cliburn Silver Medalist Philippe Bianconi; Roberto Plano, the 2005 Cliburn finalist from Italy, and occasional guest on NPR’s Performance Today; plus the two judges I was able to lure away from their dinner plans: first-time Cliburn judge Gloria Chien and Alexander Kobrin, who captured Cliburn Gold in 2005.
I asked them if they felt any sort of pressure.
“I feel very responsible,” said Chien. “You know, this is their future and this is an incredible platform, right now, and so, I feel incredible responsibility to really give each one of them as much attention and care as possible. And I think that’s all we can try to do.”
Alexander Kobrin has been in this spotlight.
“I have an opposite perspective about this, and I think I carried this same perspective when I was competing, myself,” he said. “Yes, there is pressure because of how important this event is, but I think it’s important not to have pressure being on stage, as a performer, because only then they really can show us and the audience who they truly are.”
This week, these judges have the seemingly impossible task of not only selecting 30 competitors for the 2025 Cliburn International Piano Competition, but also eliminating from contention more than half of the 77 young performers who will sit at the Steinway this week. Despite the magnitude of their job, these two judges seem to be enjoying the audition process.
“I’m having a great time!” said Chien.
“It’s great! It’s honestly great at this level,” agreed Kobrin. “I have to be honest: I’m not going to say I am enjoying every single one of them, but I’m always curious what is going to happen next. It’s like watching a short movie, in a way. You might not necessarily like the ending or the outcome, but it’s always interesting to follow each of them; how different they are, to see their programming and their taste and the ideas behind them. Yeah, it’s a great journey.”
“We were also saying how different everybody can sound on the exact same instrument, the same stage, and their imagination and what comes out of that piano in that room,” said Chien. “It’s so drastically different from person to person.”
While the judges were somewhat tight-lipped about what they were looking for in a 2025 Cliburn Gold Medalist, they also made it clear that there is not a strict rubric for success.
“For us, when we are listening, I think the question we ask is ‘Do we want to hear them again?’, but also somebody who is ready for this career, because we all know that the Cliburn is very different from other competitions,” Chien said. “When you win, all of the publicity and attention that comes with a career, it also takes someone who is ready for that role.”
Kobrin said self-expression should carry the pianists forward. “Their own view, their own interpretation. It’s not about copy-pasting or trying to find this one right answer.”
Being part of Cliburn history, Kobrin looks to past winners, and Van Cliburn, himself, to set a standard for this year’s medalists.
“I think what makes this competition so valuable and prestigious is that musicians who have been winning this competition and being prize winners at this competition represented true artistry and a level of passion for music and dedication to this art in any form, whether it’s performing, teaching, collaboration,” said Kobrin. “Van Cliburn passed a very clear message to this competition of who he was, really, and that person was of dignity, integrity, artistic honesty.”
The Cliburn International Piano Competition Screening Auditions continue thru Saturday evening at TCU’s Pepsico Recital Hall. Every performance is free and open to the public. Details.
