We knew it all along: We had booked Cliburn Bronze Medalist Evren Ozel months ago! Reflections on the Seventeenth Van Cliburn Competition
We piano people don’t typically get to share in the same level of mass excitement as our fellow humans invested in major sporting events. How often do we really get to feel the drama, the anticipation, the nail-biting tension of a full-blown, international battle centered around our favorite instrument? At least once every four years, actually!
Sure, the Olympic Games is still the quadrennial event with stratospheric numbers of viewers worldwide, but here at PPI we were just thrilled silly to count among the 20 million passionate souls around the world (not a shabby number either!) who tuned into the Seventeenth Van Cliburn Competition between May 21 and June 7th. “The Cliburn”, as it’s affectionately called, celebrates the legacy of one of the greatest musicians of our lifetime, and showcases the astonishing talent of the young pianists of the future. Although the live event draws an estimated 2000 audience members to Texas, the vast majority of the audience is online, with a dedicated YouTube channel streaming performances live. (The channel is a veritable treasure trove of past recordings, performances with synched scores, keyboard view recordings, and interviews with artists. If you haven’t checked it out, hurry up and do!)
Some background on the hype: Van Cliburn, once proclaimed by Time magazine to be “the Texan who conquered Russia”, was a 23-year-old pianist from Fort Worth who, in 1958, at the height of the Cold War, won the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He immediately became an international icon. Over the next five decades, he established himself as one of the most persuasive ambassadors of American culture, as well as one of the greatest pianists of all time. The Van Cliburn Competition was founded in 1962 and has since become not only one of the most prestigious competitions in the world, but also one of the most pivotal in terms of launching the careers of internationally acclaimed artists (prior PPI recitalists Radu Lupu, Olga Kern and Yunchan Lim are among the past winners). Interestingly, The Cliburn has only been won by an American twice: in 1962 (Ralph Votapek), and in 1997 (Jon Nakamatsu) – which is why 2025 quickly became such a Big Deal to us in the office. With not one, but three North Americans among the six finalists, how could we not be beside ourselves with glee – especially if one of them was Evren Ozel, who will open our season on September 7th?
Further proof of PPI’s unerring artistic direction: Anchoring the broadcast with insightful commentary and nuggets of expertise was none other than Elizabeth Roe (together with Cliburn stalwart Buddy Bray), with her duo partner Greg Anderson reporting from backstage. We get to spend time with them right here in Portland on October 14th! And the jury chairman? Paul Lewis, who played for us in 2012 and in 2022.
Following the buildup to the final round of The Cliburn over the past weeks has felt fresh, energizing, and exhilarating. There’s a special kind of thrill and anticipation to a competition that, above all else, celebrates the music itself; the sharing of beauty. Especially in the semifinal round, when all participants performed a Mozart concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and in the final, where beloved American conductor Marin Alsop took up the baton, one could feel the camaraderie and the sheer joy of music-making ooze out of every performer. Which is no small feat: Whether you’re a seasoned amateur pianist or more in the thank-goodness-I-don’t-have-to-do-that-myself-category, we can all agree that having the required degree of stamina, meeting the extreme technical standard and then possessing the superhuman measure of artistry expected from Cliburn participants is nothing short of an Olympic feat. (Not dismissing any sportsman or -woman’s accomplishments – but 15 minutes of swimming or 60 seconds of running does not equal, in my mind, up to 140 minutes’ worth of different repertoire, memorized! You can look into the Cliburn’s competition requirements here).
The finalists. Front: Aristo Sham (Hong Kong/China) and Vitaly Starikov (Israel/Russia). Back, from left to right: Evren Ozel (US), Carter Johnson (Canada/US), Philipp Lynov (Russia), Angel Stanislav Wang (US), Aristo Sham (Hong Kong/China) and Vitaly Starikov (Israel/Russia).
To make it to the final round is already the accomplishment of a lifetime. Winning a Cliburn medal equals entering the world of a touring pianist with comprehensive career management and publicity efforts secured. We are thrilled to see Aristo Sham (gold) and Vitaly Starikov (silver) bring honor and prestige to their countries, but Evren’s bronze feels especially poignant. And with a special award for Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto to boot, we think everyone should be looking at Evren – even though he’s anything but a look-at-me kind of guy. His medal is one of the most joyful, most optimistic, most affirming things that has happened to the United States over recent months, if you ask anyone of us here at PPI.
To quote the great Van Cliburn himself: “Since we know that classical music is timeless and everlasting, it is precisely the eternal verities inherent in classical music that remain a spiritual beacon for people all over the world.”
Buy your single tickets to Van Cliburn bronze medalist Evren Ozel’s performance at Lincoln Hall on 7 September here.
Subscribe to our season to make sure you get to hear all our fabulous artists!