FROM THE PRESIDENT

It all began with my first coffee. I walked into Starbucks, and the woman asked (surprisingly…) where I was from… “I come from Montreal.” “What are you doing here?” “I work at the Cliburn.” And suddenly, “Ah! The Cliburn is great, my mom is a volunteer, and I went to see the Competition last time…” !!! Welcome to Fort Worth, home of the Cliburn!

This involvement of the people of Fort Worth towards the Cliburn is special. Most of the time, the classical performing arts is for a few (too few), and knowledge about it is limited. Not here. We like to say that our namesake Van Cliburn wanted to share music with the world and make it accessible to all. He obviously succeeded.

Over the last ten years, we continued building new ways to share music with a broadening audience and bringing the best pianists of their generation to light.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is the flagship of our fleet. Over the years, we revised our artistic approach; we increased our reach by branding all our productions under the umbrella of “The Cliburn;” we developed partnerships with online platforms all over the world; and we established a strong career management program for the winners. From 500k views of the webcast in 2013, we are now at 40 million views in 177 countries of the last Competition. I like to say that the Cliburn brings the eyes of the world to Fort Worth: the last Cliburn Competition was one of the most watched classical music events ever.

In 2015, we started the Junior Competition and Festival for young pianists 13 to 17 years old. The next pages will tell you more about the third edition of this incredible platform for young artists taking place this June in Dallas . We are so fortunate to have the chance to meet these all-around exceptional teenagers! I hope you can come and join us for a session or two. You will not be disappointed!

Part of our role, as presenters, is to reach the people where they are. In that effect, we have presented many concerts in partnership with different venues: The Post at River East, TX Whiskey Ranch, Fort Worth Public Library, Scat Jazz Lounge, The Live Oak, The Stayton at Museum Way, The Kimbell Art Museum, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth…the list goes on and on. We’ve been in Fort Worth, Dallas, Benbrook, Colleyville, Frisco, Plano, Arlington, and other wonderful cities. We also established new series of concerts: Cliburn Sessions, Cliburn in the Community, Cliburn Festival, and Cliburn Kids (our online program for education), and continued and expanded the existing programs of Cliburn Concerts, Cliburn in the Classroom, and the Cliburn Amateur Competition.

In particular, we substantially increased our concerts in schools. From the 100 presentations annually, we’ve now grown to some 300 concerts each school year. With the precious contribution of Performing Arts Fort Worth, we also presented Van Cliburn: An American Hero, the quick story of Van Cliburn, at Bass Performance Hall.

Thank you for your support of our competitions, concerts, galas, and golf tournaments with your donations, sponsorships, ticket purchases, and volunteerism.

Thank you to the wonderful Cliburn team. Without them, things would not be as great, things would not be as fun!

With your help, we can make the Cliburn even greater. We have more ideas for the future.

Jacques Marquis President and CEO

Junior Competition Schedule

You won’t want to miss a note! Tickets to all performances are on sale now.