Master Pianist Van Cliburn’s Filipino Connections
Ticker tape parade for Van Cliburn in New York after he won the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition.(Source: AP)
Cliburn’s big win was highly credible as legendary Russian pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilel were on the jury. On top of that, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev supported the jury’s decision. When Cliburn won the Moscow competition, Americans witnessed the first tickertape parade for a classical musician in New York.
(Other Tchaikovsky laureates who have performed in the Philippines are American pianist Susan Starr, second place; Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, first place; and British pianist Peter Donohoe, second place, among others. In 1982, Filipino pianist Rowena Arrieta made music history when she placed fifth in the seventh edition of the Tchaikovsky Competition and the youngest among the contestants. That year, Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses got the gold in the cello category and he would soon be known as the once and sometime husband of pianist Cecile Licad.)
For the new generation of music afficionados, the pianist is the revered musician after whom The Cliburn (also known as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions) was named.
In the early edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, two Filipino musicians —conductor Luis Valencia and now National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag—once sat on the jury.
Thus far, only one Filipino pianist has made it to The Cliburn: Iloilo-born Ma. Luisa Lopez Vito who placed fourth in the 1966 edition and with Romania’s sensational Radu Lupu as the first prize winner.
On the other hand, two of the top Cliburn prizewinners, Brazilian Cristina Ortiz and American Steven de Groote, had performed at the CCP to good audience reception.
Created in 1962, The Cliburn, held every four years, remains a pre-eminent showcase for the world’s top pianists.
The 2022 edition of The Cliburn yielded the youngest winner and the most sensational, Yunchan Lim from South Korea.
A year earlier in 2021, the Chicago iconic radio station, WFMT devoted a program of performances by piano legends. It featured the landmark recordings of Van Cliburn, Cecile Licad, and Peter Serkin.
“Very pleased to be identified with the legends,” said Licad when she heard about the radio tribute.
When Licad performed in the presidential inauguration in 2022, then President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. showed her the piano room in the Palace.
What many didn’t know was that Cliburn was a familiar figure on the Philippine music scene during the early years of martial law.
The pianist told the new president: “I know this room. This is where Van Cliburn heard me for the first time with your mom (Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos) in 1971. Cliburn was on the line and Mrs. Marcos was holding the telephone while I played Chopin Scherzo No. 2 on the piano. After my performance, Mrs. Marcos asked Cliburn, ‘Guess how old is the pianist?’ Cliburn replied, ‘40s?’ Mrs. Marcos replied laughing, ‘Van she is only 11 years old.’”
Flashback 1977. Van Cliburn with Dame Margot Fonteyn, President and Mrs. Marcos and then CCP president (now National Artist for Music) Lucrecia Kasilag during the inauguration of the National Arts Center in Mt. Makiling. (Source: from the Pablo A. Tariman Collection)
Sadly, the antique Steinway grand was no longer in the piano room and Licad quipped, “What is a music room without a piano?”
Van Cliburn and Cecile Licad at the Steinway celebration in New York some years back (Source: from the Pablo A. Tariman Collection)
On Cliburn’s 90th birthday on July 12, musicians are likely to pay tribute to his lifelong commitment to music
Expect endless postings of video clips from his past landmark engagements and more music recollections from music lovers and friends.
Before we unearth Cliburn’s other Philippine connections, comparisons with a Filipino pianist are in order.
Both reared by musician mothers (Mrs. Rosario Licad and Mrs.Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn), Licad and Cliburn are both sensational piano prodigies and both are recipients of the Leventritt Award (the other awardee is the equally distinguished Gary Graffman).
What many didn’t know was that Cliburn was a familiar figure on the Philippine music scene during the early years of martial law.
He was close friend of Mrs. Marcos who was his frequent host. Cliburn’s name appears several times in the guest book of the Coconut Palace where the former first lady’s celebrity guests used to stay.
When the former first lady was hospitalized after an assassin tried to kill her with a bolo during a speaking engagement in 1972, one of the first hospital visitors was Cliburn.
The friendship between the former First Lady and the American pianist bloomed to such heights the latter agreed to give a fundraising concert for the benefit of young talented Filipino musicians.
When Cliburn arrived in Manila in the early ‘70s for such a fundraising concert, the one who gave him the welcome bouquet at the airport was no other than Cecile Licad.
That Cliburn concert raised funds for the Young Artists Foundation which funded several aspiring musicians among them Licad, Rowena Arrieta, Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, Raul Sunico, the Bolipata brothers, and Noel Velasco, among others.
In another fundraising concert at the Araneta Coliseum with the CCP orchestra (now the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra), Cliburn played the Grieg concerto without the benefit of a rehearsal. The pianist was stuck in Leyte with Mrs. Marcos and arrived in Manila just in time for the concert at the Araneta Coliseum.
The then CCP president (now National Artist for Music) Lucrecia Kasilag greeted Cliburn and conductor Luis Valencia backstage with, “Amazing how this concerto went very well without a rehearsal.”
A few years later in the young Licad’s first performance in Van Cliburn’s home state, Texas, his mother, Mrs.Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, was so impressed she slipped a $100 bill in the prodigy’s concert gown after her performance with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
At the CCP some years back: Van Cliburn, his mother Mrs.Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn and Cecile Licad (Source: from the Pablo A. Tariman Collection)
Licad was present in another tribute to Van Cliburn at the Lotus Club in New York a year ago.
Cecile Licad invitation to a state dinner in honor of Van Cliburn at the Lotus Club in New York last year (Source: from the Pablo A. Tariman Collection)
It must be noted Cliburn didn’t consider his 1958 Moscow triumph a big deal. “If they appreciate what you did -- I am so grateful, because Russians were wonderful to me. They were such great audiences; I cannot begin to tell you. I didn’t conquer anything. As a matter of fact, they conquered my heart.”
Pablo A. Tariman contributes to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, Vera Files and The Diarist.Ph. He has covered the performing arts for 48 years and is coming out with his second book, Encounters in the Arts. He was one of 160 Asian poets who made it in the anthology, The Best Asian Poetry 2021-22 published in Singapore. He was recipient of the Philippines Graphic’s Salute Award for poetry in 2023 and the 2024 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards. Born in Baras, Catanduanes, he has three daughters and six grandchildren.
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