18 Pianists Advance To Cliburn Quarterfinals

Arlington TX

06 June, 2022

5:52 PM

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By Marcheta Fornoff, Fort Worth Report June 5, 2022 Classical music fans anxiously waited in TCU's Van Cliburn Concert Hall for the names of 18 quarterfinalists to be announced – while more than a million viewers watched the live stream online. Tamara Munk, who flew in from Washington D.C. to attend the performances with her mother and her niece, raved about the quality of performances. "It was an incredible crop this year," Munk said. "I'm pretty sure we had some performances of a lifetime tonight. You know, everybody remembers Olga Kern winning the gold. I'm going to remember "Three Movements from Petrushka" by Ilya (Shmukler). The passion was there – (it was) the performance of his lifetime." Her niece, 17-year-old Elise Ross who traveled from San Diego, had three lists — yes, no and maybe — where she was trying to predict which pianists would advance."There were a lot more yeses than nos," Ross said, noting that Clayton Stephenson is one of the pianists she's rooting for. Her grandmother Jeanne Ross who made a trip from Baja, Mexico also tried to guess who would make it through. "I selected almost all of them," Ross said. "Except for a few, I did pretty well." Further back in the auditorium, Ebrain Mirambeau of Dallas also enjoyed Shmukler's performance. "I was just blown away by 'Three Movements from Petrushka,' " Mirambeau said. "It was beautiful." The classical music lover was also a fan of American pianist Kate Liu. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.