Tickets go on sale today for the Cliburn’s upcoming season, which includes the 40th anniversary of the Cliburn Concerts recital series, along with the Cliburn Sessions club series and Cliburn in the Community outreach program.
This season’s programming includes some changes to the Cliburn Concerts format. The Cliburn will present one blockbuster concert at Bass Performance Hall, two distinctive series at the Kimbell Art Museum and its longstanding concert series at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
“Forty years ago, the Cliburn established Cliburn Concerts, a recital series designed to engage and provide beautiful concerts for the supportive Fort Worth community during the ‘interim years’ of the Cliburn Competition,” said Cliburn President and CEO Jacques Marquis. “We strive to always create the best concert experiences possible – in our recital format that means matching performers of the highest artistic integrity with the right setting in order to set the stage for an intimate dialogue between artist and audience. We believe that the changes we announce today are exactly in line with that goal.”
Cliburn at the Bass, slated for March 28, 2017, will feature three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn with pianist and conductor Robert Levin.
The Masters series at the Kimbell will feature the award-winning Brentano String Quartet – the resident string quartet at the Yale School of Music – and Haochen Zhang, the gold medal winner at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, on Oct. 27-28, 2016; husband-and wife baritone Nathan Gunn and pianist Julie Gunn on Jan. 26-27, 2017; and pianist Richard Goode on Feb. 23-24, 2017.
The Virtuosos series at the Kimbell includes Sean Chen, third-prize winner at the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, on Sept. 22; Behzod Abduraimov, winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition, who will make his Cliburn Concerts debut on Nov. 10; and Grammy-nominated Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital in his North Texas debut with harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss on Feb. 9, 2017.
On Oct. 8, Cliburn at the Modern will feature six North Texas pianists performing works written for the piano in the last 20 years by various American composers. Composer Gabriela Lena Frank will perform on April 1, 2017.
Cliburn Sessions are scheduled Nov. 1 with vocal group VOCES8; Jan. 19, 2017, with pianist Conrad Tao; and March 9 with string quartet Sybarite5. All performances will be at the Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge, located at 1311 Lipscomb St., on Fort Worth’s South Side.
Cliburn in the Community showcases young, emerging artists for weeklong residencies and free public performances. Tomoki Sakata, a 2013 Cliburn Competition finalist, will perform Oct. 10-15, and Claire Huangci, winner of the 2013 Cliburn Competition Jury Discretionary Award, will be featured April 11-16, 2017. A detailed public concert schedule will be announced this fall.
Tickets to all concerts can be purchased online at Cliburn.org, by calling 817-212-4280, or in person at the Bass Hall Box Office, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth.