2013 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist - Vadym Kholodenko

Civic Music Association will celebrate the life and legacy of Van Cliburn with this concert featuring the winner of the 14th Annual Competition. Van Cliburn’s sensational victory at the first Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow in 1958 heralded a new confidence in the quality of American music-making, as well as a new era in cultural relations between East and West. The quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, widely recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious, was organized by a group of music teachers and citizens from Fort Worth, Texas in 1962 to commemorate his historic achievement and is dedicated to the discovery of the world’s finest pianists. The Cliburn will present the fourteenth edition May 24–June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall.

Vadym Kholodenko, from Ukraine, won the prestigious award after a 2 week competition.

Born in Kiev, Vadym Kholodenko won first prize at both the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund in 2012, and the Sendai International Music Competition in 2010. He has worked with Yuri Bashmet, Vladimir Spivakov, and other distinguished conductors, and has performed across the globe in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States. He released recordings of Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Medtner on Russia’s TV Culture label in 2009. An avid chamber musician as well, he performed and recorded a CD with violinist Alena Baeva, and formed a piano duo with Andrey Gugnin which they dubbed “iDuo.” Mr. Kholodenko currently resides in Moscow, where he attends the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.