By Randy Fiedler
Van Cliburn, one of the 20th century’s greatest pianists, died this morning at his home near Fort Worth. The 78-year-old Cliburn had been suffering from advanced bone cancer.
Cliburn was born July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, La., and began taking piano lessons at age three from his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn. At six years of age, Cliburn moved with his family to Kilgore, Texas.
The young pianist soon began attracting professional attention and winning honors. At age 12 he won a statewide competition that lead to a debut performance with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. When he entered the Julliard School at age 17, his mother had been his only piano teacher up to that time.
Cliburn gained instant international fame in 1958 when he traveled to Moscow and won the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, held at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Upon his return to the U.S. he was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time a classical musician has received that honor (see photo).
After his success in Moscow, Cliburn began a long and accomplished performing and recording career. He won numerous awards, performed for heads of state around the world and raised money for a number of charitable causes.
Baylor ties
Cliburn had numerous ties to Baylor University, starting with his great-grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Green O’Bryan. O’Bryan was a professor of theology and mathematics at Baylor University in Independence from 1852-1854. O’Bryan went on to become one of the founders of Waco University, which merged with Baylor in 1886 upon its relocation to Waco, and he served as an early pastor of Waco’s First Baptist Church.
Cliburn’s grandfather, William Carey O’Bryan, was a graduate of Baylor who served in the Texas Legislature. More recently, one of Baylor’s first two Master Teachers, history professor Robert Reid, was Cliburn’s cousin.
Beginning in the 1950s, Cliburn made numerous visits to the Baylor campus to perform and visit friends and relatives. Not long after his award-winning performance in Moscow, Cliburn played his first concert with the Baylor Symphony Orchestra in Waco Hall on Nov. 6, 1958. At that time he gave Baylor $4,000 to support scholarships in religion, law, theatre and music, and donated $10,000 to set up a Baylor Symphony Orchestra fund.
Cliburn’s other performances in Waco included concerts with the Baylor Symphony in 1959 and 1968, as well as a benefit performance in Baylor’s Jones Concert Hall on Feb. 26, 1993, that raised money for the Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Piano Scholarship. Cliburn’s 94-year-old mother was in the Jones Hall audience.
In 1962, when Baylor music dean Daniel Sternberg need help choosing a Steinway piano to buy with donated funds, he called on Cliburn to personally select a Steinway for the University. In November 1958, Baylor awarded Cliburn an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
SOURCES: Baylor Lariat, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
PHOTO CREDIT: Neal Boenzi/The New York Times