There’s an old folk belief that the level of playing in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition drops off in the semifinals. If Thursday afternoon’s session didn’t completely disprove that proposition, it certainly demonstrated that there are exceptions. If anything Mariangela Vacatello of Italy and Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria (shown at left) improved on their [...]

Every two years, the Texas Commission on the Arts announces its appointments to the honorary positions of state poet laureate, state musician, etc. For 2009, the Texas state musician is Willie Nelson (must have been a tough vote), the state poet laureate is Paul Ruffin, who was the founding editor of The Texas Review and [...]

Here is Friday’s schedule of semifinal performances in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. All sessions are in Bass Performance Hall, Fourth and Commerce in downtown Fort Worth. Matinee Session 1:30 pm.: Haochen Zhang of China will play Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Opus 28, Bates’ White Lies for Lomax and Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody. 2:45 p.m.: [...]

THE ART INSTALLMENT PLAN: It seems pretty obvious that a major hurdle standing between most people and a work of art they love is the price tag. But that hurdle doesn’t seem quite as big if you can jump over it a little bit at a time. That’s why some North Texas galleries have begun [...]

Well, it’s time for the traditional what-on-earth-could-they-have-been-thinking-of postmortem on the judges’ selection of the 12 semifinalists in the Van Cliburn Competition. I’ve been to many Cliburns and there has never yet been one in which there weren’t expressions of indignation, or in many cases outrage, at judges’ decisions. Actually, I think the choices this time [...]

The judges named 12 semifinalists Tuesday night in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. They are: Ran Dank of Israel Eduard Kunz of Russia Di Wu of China Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan Michail Lifits of Germany Alessandro Deljavan of Italy Mariangela Vacatello of Italy Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria Andrea Lam of Australia Haochen Zhang [...]

Tuesday afternoon’s music-making at the Van Cliburn Competition was consistent in its high competence though interest varied a bit. For me, the most satisfactory was the program of Kyu Yeon Kim of South Korea. She opened with Haydn’s Sonata in C, Hob. XVI:48, whose first movement was beautifully, eloquently done and whose second (there are [...]

CLIBURN ONLINE: It’s probably not much of a stretch to say that the 13th edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is the most blogged about yet. Olin Chism has been good for posts every day on the Art&Seek blog. And he’s not alone in his daily devotion. Scott Cantrell has been breaking down [...]

This is getting to be one of the best Cliburns. Each session seems to turn up at least one exceptional artist, and sometimes more than that. With this strong a field, the semifinals should be something to hear. Monday night’s star was Haochen Zhang of China, at 19 the competition’s youngest contestant. His program of [...]

Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria made a strong showing at the afternoon session of the preliminaries of the Van Cliburn Competition on Monday. His program of Mozart, Chopin and Chopin didn’t contain much composer variety, but who’s to complain when the level of skill and interpretation is exceptionally high? Bozhanov opened with Mozart’s Sonata in D, [...]