His RCA Victor recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto was the first classical recording to gain platinum status by selling over a million copies within a year. It is still available on CD.
Throughout his career, he had a great interest in encouraging young people to take up classical music. He established the annual Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in his home town of Fort Worth.
“It’s been so interesting to see the young people come. They meet each other and have friendships and musical correspondences. It’s really very exciting. And it’s like the same feeling I had when I went to Russia in 1958. The warmth and camaraderie – it carried through all through the years.”
He also encouraged the careers of young performers by creating several scholarship programs.
Cliburn continued to perform concerts and solo recitals, but in 1978, he walked off the stage, professionally exhausted. He would play occasionally in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he mainly lived out his final years outside of the public spotlight.
A favorite saying of Van Cliburn was his take on a statement by the great 20th century Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Great music is enough for a lifetime. But a lifetime is not enough for great music.”
And that’s “As It Is” from VOA Learning English. A reminder – for the latest world news tune in VOA News at the top of the hour Universal Time, both on radio and our web site. I’m Steve Ember. Thanks for joining us.
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