Bananas are everywhere at the Cliburn. Crates of the fruit are housed in the organization’s office in downtown Fort Worth, and visitors might occasionally spot a bunch on staffers’ desks.
“We have a lot of bananas in the back,” Cliburn President and CEO Jacques Marquis said. “A lot of bananas.”
Bananas are a staple of many pianists’ preconcert diets, he explained. Some musicians believe they help with performance anxiety, the reason the Cliburn has them on hand at all times during the competition set to kick off May 21. In the early 1970s, columnist Blaine Marz wrote that Van Cliburn himself adhered to this tradition, asking a driver to take him to the store for a bunch before a concert in Indiana.
Of course, eating bananas isn’t the only way Cliburn competitors prepare. Steinway provides new grand pianos for each host family’s home so competitors can be familiar with the iconic competition piano and practice on their own schedule. During the preliminaries and quarterfinals, each pianist has additional time to work on-site, Sandra Doan, director of artistic planning at the Cliburn, said.
“What we try to do is provide them maximum time on-site to just be in a dressing room or to just get into their zone, whatever they need to do,” she said.
Those performing concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in later rounds also have orchestra rehearsals.
“For the orchestra rehearsal, we try to treat it as a normal professional engagement, so they get a piano soloist meeting about 20 minutes long to talk about tempos and ideas,” Doan said.
They will have 20-minute meetings with conductor Marin Alsop beforehand to map out the orchestra’s accompaniment. Marquis said he’s impressed by Alsop’s ability to support and guide young pianists in their craft.
The conductor enjoys being a part of the competitors’ artistic journeys.
“I love hearing, discovering and supporting these amazing talents,” she said via email.
Italian competitor Federico Gad Crema described himself as an overthinker, which he said can make practice challenging. He competed in the 2022 Cliburn, and said his approach to practice time is not to just focus on his technique, but to remind himself how much he loves the music.
“I’m just trying to go over, first of all, the reason why I’m playing this music. … On the other side, I’m trying to practice and put myself in a position where I can express that to the fullest, to the best of my abilities,” he said.
Every day, he wakes up and starts practicing. After taking a break to go for a run, he looks at the score and rehearses again.
“It takes my full day … and, unfortunately, that’s just how it is,” he said.
Chinese competitor Jiarui Cheng started performing when he was 3 and still remembers his first recital.
“It was in kindergarten,” he said. “I remember, I was very nervous.”
Once he sat down at the piano, his nerves went away. Sometimes that still happens, he said, but seeing his friends also competing at the Cliburn helps him feel comfortable.
“It’s a good opportunity to see my old friends,” he said.
Gad Crema also said he’s finding comfort before the competition, particularly from his host family who are helping him feel at ease. Each pianist is paired with a host family as well as “social hosts” who take the musicians to cultural landmarks around the city.
“I’m having a blast already, and … being (with) a host family here in Fort Worth helps a lot to be sort of distracted from the fact that this is still a competition,” he said.
Charms and rituals
Upon learning they were accepted into the competition, Cheng and Gad Crema said their feelings were twofold: great joy followed seconds later by intense pressure.
Maggie Estes, spokesperson for the Cliburn, said competitors often have their own ways to handle the stress, such as good luck charms and preperformance routines.
“There are superstitions, too, that we’ve heard about over the years, like wearing certain items of clothing,” she said.
Some wear gloves before playing, Marquis said, while others put on headphones.
Cheng sometimes washes his hands in hot water before going onstage to feel soothed. He also listens to music, which keeps him feeling inspired rather than nervous. He said that when the nerves inevitably return, he practices again to shift his attention back to the music.
“Thinking about the music, it makes me feel better,” he said.
Gad Crema’s routine is to meditate and focus on his breathing.
“It’s out of my hands, you know what I mean?” he said. “I’m here because of God’s talent and I’m just trusting God in everything that I do.”
Though playing piano became a passion during his childhood, he said it’s equally important to have time off the piano, like spending time with friends — or watching sports.
“Last night, I watched the Stars game,” he said, referencing Dallas’ overtime playoff victory against the Winnipeg Jets on May 17. “That was great, by the way. Great win.”
Erin Ratigan is a freelance journalist and writer specializing in narrative news features. You can find her on X @erinratigan.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.