Cliburn narrows competition to 12 pianists. Here’s who played their way to the semifinals

Five days into the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 12 competitors are moving on to the semifinals.

After hearing their names announced before a packed audience at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU late Sunday night, the pianists huddled together in a corner of the stage to nervously ask Cliburn staff questions about the next round, which runs May 28-June 1 at Bass Performance Hall. Seventeen musicians vied for the semifinals after Xiaofu Ju of China withdrew Saturday due to medical reasons.

Now, each remaining competitor will perform a 60-minute recital and a Mozart concerto accompanied by conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Chaeyoung Park of South Korea was one of two women to place for the semifinals. She said it felt great to hear her name called.

“I feel very excited — excited that I am getting to play more of the pieces that I have prepared,” she said.

Here’s who is headed to the semifinals:

• Piotr Alexewicz, Poland, 25
• Jonas Aumiller, Germany, 26
• Carter Johnson, Canada/United States, 28
• Yangrui Cai, China, 24
• Elia Cecino, Italy, 23
• Chaeyoung Park, South Korea, 27
• Aristo Sham, China, 29
• Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia, 30
• Yanjun Chen, China, 23
• Philipp Lynov, Russia, 26
• Angel Stanislav Wang, United States, 22
• Evren Ozel, United States, 26

One of Park’s chosen recital pieces is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, which she described as “terrifyingly exciting.” Competitors choose their Mozart concertos from a list provided by the Cliburn, with Park picking the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor.

“I think the temperament of this concerto suits me a bit better than some others (on the list),” she said. “It’s quite introverted at times, but … I think it’s a very soulful concerto and it also has a lot of fire, and I tend to gravitate toward very strongly emotional pieces.”

Cliburn President and CEO Jacques Marquis told the Report in an interview before the competition that the Mozart concertos showcase the performer’s ability to work within a demanding chamber music format. Chamber music involves a smaller orchestra, which Marquis said leaves the pianist with “nowhere to hide.” The concertos are also stylistically vigorous.

If played too fast, the style is wrong, he said. If played too slowly, audiences get bored.

“The phrasing is really, really, really important,” Marquis said, “because a note that is too loud in your scale sounds too loud because there’s no backup.”

This round tells the jurors a lot about a pianist, which is the point of the whole competition.

“What we ask the jury at the end is, ‘Choose someone that you believe has a unique voice but also can sustain a career and touring,’ and that’s part of it,” Marquis said.

Park said she hasn’t thought much about what it would be like to win the Cliburn. How the jury votes is outside of her control. What she focuses on instead is meeting her own standards and being happy with her performance.

“That’s the most important thing,” she said, “and I want to be satisfied with my playing.”

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.