83R13707 JGH-D
By: Geren H.R. No. 1126
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Texans and other music lovers around the world join
in mourning the loss of the concert pianist and cultural ambassador
Van Cliburn of Fort Worth, who died on February 27, 2013; and
WHEREAS, Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr., was born in Shreveport,
Louisiana, on July 12, 1934; his mother, Rildia Bee O'Bryan, was a
talented pianist who had studied with a student of Franz Liszt, and
she began to teach her son the piano at the age of three; when the
boy was six, the family moved to Kilgore where his father, Harvey
Cliburn, Sr., a purchasing agent for an oil company, built a
practice studio for his gifted child; and
WHEREAS, At the age of 13, Van Cliburn won a statewide
competition and played a piano concerto with the Houston Symphony
Orchestra, and when he was 17, he accepted a scholarship from the
Juilliard School in New York; he won his first major musical
competition, the Leventritt Foundation Award, in 1954, earning a
recording contract with Columbia Artists and the opportunity to
perform with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and with
four other major orchestras; and
WHEREAS, In 1958, Mr. Cliburn became an overnight, worldwide
sensation when he triumphed at the very first Tchaikovsky
International Competition in Moscow, which had been created
specifically to showcase the talents of Russian pianists; coming at
the height of the Cold War, and only a year after the Soviet Union
had beaten America into orbit with Sputnik, Mr. Cliburn's victory
was astonishing, but even more astonishing was the fact that
Russian audiences went wild for a six-foot-four blond Baptist from
Kilgore; and
WHEREAS, Performing two beloved Russian piano concertos, the
Tchaikovsky First and the Rachmaninoff Third, Mr. Cliburn
enraptured the standing-room-only audience in the Great Hall of the
Moscow Conservatory; the crowd cheered for 10 minutes following his
performance, women rushed the stage with bouquets of roses, and one
elderly man told a New York Times reporter that the young American
played as well as, and perhaps even better than, Rachmaninoff
himself; even Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was impressed,
asking Mr. Cliburn, "Why are you so tall?" to which Mr. Cliburn
replied, "Because I am from Texas"; and
WHEREAS, No one was more surprised by the overwhelming
response than Mr. Cliburn himself; when he called home from Russia
and asked his mother to tell a family friend the news, his mother
replied, "She knows, darling, she knows"; returning home as an
American hero, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine as "The
Texan Who Conquered Russia," performed at Madison Square Garden and
the Hollywood Bowl, and received the first ticker-tape parade in
New York City ever accorded to a classical musician; his recording
of the Tchaikovsky concerto topped Billboard's charts for months
and was the first classical recording ever to be awarded a platinum
record; and
WHEREAS, The same year as Mr. Cliburn's triumph in Moscow, a
group of piano teachers in Fort Worth began the groundwork for an
annual piano competition named in his honor, and the first Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition was staged in 1962; held
every four years, it has since become one of the most prestigious
classical music events in the world and has launched the careers of
many talented artists; moreover, the Van Cliburn Foundation has
become a major force in music education and outreach, providing
recordings for the public radio show Performance Today, presenting
community concerts, and offering music programs to 33,000
grade-school children and 119 elementary schools in Texas; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Cliburn retired from touring in 1978, and in the
1980s, he left New York, where he had been living, and returned to
Texas, moving to the Westover Hills suburb of Fort Worth; over the
years, he was a beloved presence in the city, often appearing at
cultural events and serving as a gracious host at his home; although
he never acted as a judge at the Cliburn competition because he
couldn't bring himself to rate the contestants, he presented the
winners with their medals and generously gave his time to all the
attendees; he endowed scholarships at Texas Christian University,
Louisiana State University, Juilliard, the Moscow Conservatory,
and many other schools; and
WHEREAS, In 1987, Mr. Cliburn helped to herald the end of the
Cold War when he performed a recital at the White House for
President Ronald Reagan and Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and in 1989,
he returned to Russia to play once again at the Great Hall of the
Moscow Conservatory; he went on to perform at Carnegie Hall during
the 100th anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic, and he
appeared as well at major concert halls across the nation; and
WHEREAS, During his lifetime, Mr. Cliburn played for every
American president since Harry Truman and for many other heads of
state; his countless awards include the Kennedy Center Honors, a
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from President George W. Bush, the Order of Friendship from
Russian President Vladimir Putin, and, received in 2011, the
National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama; and
WHEREAS, The enormous musical talent of Van Cliburn was
matched only by his charm, his humility, and his deep religious
faith; during a time of great tension between two nuclear-armed
superpowers, this lanky, boyish young Texan reached across the
divide and won the hearts of the Russian people with his passion for
the music they loved; he was equally beloved during his later years
in Fort Worth, where he was as welcome at the Ol' South Pancake
House and Broadway Baptist Church as he was at the Kimball Art
Museum and Bass Performance Hall; speaking to a friend once, Mr.
Cliburn claimed that he experienced his worst stage fright in Fort
Worth, because he had so many friends there and he "just couldn't
stand to let them down," but in the end, of course, he never did;
now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 83rd Texas
Legislature hereby pay tribute to the life of Van Cliburn and extend
sincere condolences to his partner, Thomas L. Smith, to his loved
ones, and to his countless friends and admirers across the Lone Star
State and beyond; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Van
Cliburn.