Six pianists honored at 2009 Cliburn Competition.

Six pianists honored at 2009 Cliburn Competition. Nobuyuki Tsujii, of Japan, and Haochen Zhang, of China, won goldmedals at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held May22-June 7, 2009, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. Of 225 applicants, 150 were invited to participate in the worldwideScreening Audition Recitals, held in Shanghai, China; Hannover, Germany;St. Petersburg, Russia; Lugano, Switzerland; New York, New York; andFort Worth, Texas, during January and February. Thirty of these pianistswere selected to compete in the Cliburn 2009. Along with Tsujii and Zhang, four other pianists were honored. YeolEum Son, of South Korea, won silver medalist honors. Evgeni Bozhanov, ofBulgaria, Mariangela Vacatello, of Italy, and Di Wu, of China, were allfinalists. All six winners received an opportunity to perform throughout theUnited States, sharing three years of managed concert tours and morethan 300 prearranged engagements valued at more than a million dollarsin combined performance fees. The gold medalists have additionalengagements in Europe and Asia, in conjunction with IMG Artists, Europe. For more information, visit www.cliburn.org.