The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition took place in Fort Worth, Texas from May 22 to June 7, 2009. The competitors were selected by a screening jury during screening auditions that took place in January and February 2009. The Takács Quartet performed with the semifinalists, while the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon accompanied the finalists.
At the suggestion of composer John Corigliano, a 25-member nominating committee of distinguished musicians issued invitations to noted American composers to submit solo piano scores 8 to 12 minutes in length. Original works by American composers John Musto, Mason Bates, and Daron Hagen were chosen.
Competitors can meet Van Cliburn, a famous American pianist, who came in first place at the Tchaikovsky competition that took place in Moscow, Russia.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is a quadrennial competition hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. The first competition took place September 24-October 7, 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas.
(* denotes members of screening audition jury)
*John Giordano (chairman), Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra music director
*Marcello Abbado, concert pianist and composer
Michel Béroff, pianist and conductor *Richard Dyer, classical music writer Joseph Kalichstein, pianist *Yoheved Kaplinsky, pianist and professor of piano
Jürgen Meyer-Josten, pianist and radio executive Menahem Pressler, pianist and professor of music
Tadeusz Strugala, conductor and professor of music| Award | Winner(s) | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| First Prize (Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal) |  Haochen Zhang Nobuyuki Tsujii(tie) | cash award of US $20,000 each International concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi usa label contribution towards domestic and international air travel on American Airlines during the three-year concert tours performance attire provided by Neiman Marcus silver trophy cup |
| Second Prize (Silver Medal) | Yeol Eum Son | cash award of US $20,000 U.S. concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi usa label |
| Third Prize (Crystal Award) | not awarded | |
| Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance(s) of Chamber Music |  Evgeni Bozhanovand Yeol Eum Son | cash award of US $3,000 each |
| Beverly Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work | Nobuyuki Tsujii | cash award of US $5,000 |
| John Giordano Jury Chairman Discretionary Award | Alessandro Deljavan | cash award of US $4,000 |
| Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award |  Lukáš Vondráček | cash award of US $4,000 |
| Jury Discretionary Award | Eduard Kunz | cash award of US $4,000 |
| Internet Voter Award | Mariangela Vacatello (23.9%) Nobuyuki Tsujii (22.6%) Yeol Eum Son (15.9%) | |
Shanghai - Shanghai Conservatory, He Lu Ting Concert Hall, January 15–17, 2009
Yunjie Chen
Roger Longjie Cui Christine Luo Yoshito Numasawa Wenyu Shen Tom Tang Chun Wang Shiran Wang Tianyang Wang Zhefei Wang Chi Wu Yashuangzi Xie Chenxin Xu Feng Zhang Yu Zhang Ning Zhou Xixi Zhou Hanover - Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, January 20–24, 2009
Hinrich Alpers Evgeni Bozhanov Romain David
Martina Filjak Andreas Hering
Natacha Kudritskaya
Colleen Lee
Tamara Licheli
Michail Lifits Benjamin Moser Dmytro Onyschenko
Satu Paavola Esther Park
Marianna Prjevalskaya
Philippe Raskin Mayumi Sakamoto
Louis Schwizgebel-Wang 
Avan YuSaint Petersburg - N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, January 26–27, 2009
Vadym Kholodenko
Yaron Kohlberg Dinara Nadzhafova Kateryna Titova Lugano - Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana, February 1–3, 2009
Gloria Campaner Alessandro Deljavan Dmitry Demyashkin François Dumont
Gayane Gasparyan Irena Gulzarova
István Lajkó Ji Liu
Vikingur Olafsson Tristan Pfaff Matan Porat
Timur Shcherbakov Marian Sobula Victor Stanislavsky Alessandro Taverna Mariangela Vacatello Lukáš Vondráček Daniel Wnukowski Takashi Yamamoto Maurizio Zaccaria New York - Rockefeller University, February 12–14, 2009
Carlos Ávila Jan Bartoš Yelena Beriyeva Stephen Beus Yue Chu Ran Dank Gregory DeTurck Christopher Falzone
Wael Farouk Anna Fedorova Tanya Gabrielian Pavel Gintov Miao Hou Sean Kennard Ben Kim Andrea Lam
Edvinas Minkstimas Spencer Myer Hoang Pham Serhiy Salov Shohei Sekimoto Anna Shelest Konstantin Soukhovetski Diyi Tang Jue Wang Di Wu Hong Xu Ryo Yanagitani Amy Yang Einav Yarden Wei-Jen Yuan Haochen Zhang Eric Zuber Zhang Zuo Jenny Deborah Han Fort Worth, Texas - Texas Christian University, February 21–24, 2009
Jun Asai Sara Daneshpour Tamas Ardi Christopher Guzmán
Tanya Karyagyna Naomi Kudo Dmitri Levkovich Ang Li
Dimitris Papadimitriou
Eduardo Rojas
Aleyson Scopel Andrew Staupe Konstantyn Travinsky Nobuyuki Tsujii Vassilis Varvaresos
Abdiel Vazquez Ti Xin Fort Worth, Texas - Bass Performance Hall, May 22–26, 2009
Stephen Beus Evgeni Bozhanov Yue Chu (withdrew before Preliminary round due to hand injury) Ran Dank Alessandro Deljavan Naomi Kudo Natacha Kudritskaya Andrea Lam Ang Li Michail Lifits Spencer Myer Mayumi Sakamoto Victor Stanislavsky Chetan Tierra Nobuyuki Tsujii Mariangela Vacatello Vassilis Varvaresos Lukáš Vondráček Di Wu Amy Yang Feng Zhang Haochen Zhang Ning Zhou Zhang Zuo Evgeni Bozhanov Ran Dank Alessandro Deljavan Andrea Lam Michail Lifits Nobuyuki Tsujii Mariangela Vacatello Di Wu Haochen Zhang Evgeni Bozhanov Nobuyuki Tsujii Mariangela Vacatello Di Wu Haochen ZhangLike previous Cliburn Competitions, a competition documentary was produced called A Surprise in Texas, directed by Peter Rosen who directed several previous Cliburn documentaries. It premiered on April 11, 2010 at the Dallas International Film Festival and was broadcast nationwide in the USA on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television starting on September 1, 2010.[1]