Van Cliburn

I will leave it to the professional writers to appropriately memorialize the late Van Cliburn. Few American classical musicians have captured the public's attention as he did. Maybe Leonard Bernstein, whose career spanned 50 years, could come close to matching Mr. Cliburn, who was active for only a couple of decades. 

I was only 4 years old when Van Cliburn took the world by storm and set the Soviet propaganda machine on its ear with his victory in the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. But I remember what a stir that news caused, not just for my parents, who were very much in tune with such things, but among everyone else around me. 

And to top it off, this was no blustery, in-your-face caricature of a Texan, but a shy, gracious, unfailingly polite young Texas gentleman. A friend of mine who once met Mr. Cliburn at his Fort Worth home can vouch for that aspect of his personality.

But one of my cousins can attest to the influence he had, not only on international politics, but on a generation or more of aspiring young musicians, of whom she was one. Van Cliburn showed her that a kid from Texas could make it as a successful concert pianist. And even if the Cliburn-inspired dream of an 8-year-old Dallas girl would never quite come to fruition (I believe she got as far as a bachelor's degree in music), his greatest gift to us all remains -- the hope inspired by his music.