The Russia-Ukraine war looms over this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth.
The six finalists include two Russians (Anna Geniushene and Ilya Shmukler), one Ukrainian (Dymtro Choni) and one Belarusian (Uladzislau Khandohi). Only Geniushene, who left Russia with her husband and young son after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, is willing to speak about the war.
“That was our clear statement,” she said of her family’s decision, speaking at a news conference Thursday. They now live in Lithuania, where her husband holds citizenship, and don’t intend to return to Russia until the war is over. “I think our actions and our gestures told more than words that I can speak right now.”
Shmukler, Choni and Khandohi also spoke at the Cliburn news conference, but a Cliburn representative said they would not take questions related to politics or the war.
The final performance rounds are Friday and Saturday, with the winners announced Saturday night.
In the quarterfinal round, at Texas Christian University’s Music Center, Geniushene wore vyshyvanka, a traditional Ukrainian shirt, to show her solidarity with the Ukrainian people. “That was my gesture of support,” she said.
Geniushene believes it’s old-fashioned to view competitors as representatives of their countries. “When we are on stage, we are representing different schools of music,” she explained. “We are not athletes. We are not sponsored by the government. We are self-employed musicians.”
She prefers to say that she’s representing both the Russian and English schools of music, having trained in both countries.
Still, it was hard not to hear connections to the war in the final round of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition on Wednesday, when three of the pianists from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, in succession, played concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Jacques Marquis, president and CEO of the Cliburn, said the lineup was inadvertent. It was designed to give each pianist the same amount of time to rest between performances.
The Cliburn’s decision to let Russians compete has triggered backlash from some who think they should be banned. Both the Dublin and Honens Piano Competitions initially decided to ban Russians, later reversing course.
“We’ve been talking about giving a platform to young musicians, from wherever they are, and will not discriminate,” Marquis said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“Naturally, if someone would have been in support of war, we would have the need to disqualify and send home anybody. But we still believe these young musicians have nothing to do with this.”
Musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus reportedly know each other from the international competition circuit, and have been seen talking in Russian about musical matters. At the press conference, Geniushene said there haven’t been any problems or negative interactions among them.
“We are here united by music,” she added. “That’s the most important thing.”
Details
All performances are being livestreamed free at cliburn.org, cliburn.medici.tv and youtube.com/thecliburn. 4K HDR video and surround-sound audio are available via subscription at hyfi.live/vancliburn.
For performance tickets and information on livestreams, call 817-738-6536 or go to cliburn.org. Performances are at Bass Performance Hall, Fourth and Commerce in Fort Worth.
