Van Cliburn

Chopin Polonaise in A flat(YouTube video)

Legendary pianist Van Cliburn, the only solo musician to receive a ticker-tape parade in New York City and the first classical musician to sell a million albums, died Wednesday morning in his Fort Worth, Texas, home. The 78-year-old Texan soared to world fame in 1958 when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.

 The 23 year-old was just a few years out of New York's famed Juilliard School when the first Tchaikovsky piano competition beckoned from Moscow. His performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was a stunner.

“In some ways, there was a perfect cultural storm taking place at that event, because it was the middle of the Cold War, the Russians had launched Sputnik, [students] were diving under desks at school in case the Russians dropped the atomic bomb."

Cliburn shrugged off all the attention, saying he was just a musical servant. Richard Rodzinski says the pianist took the word seriously. " 'Serving' is a big word in his vocabulary," says Rodzinski. "He refers to presidents of the United States who serve a term, a queen who will serve her people. He feels he is serving the purpose of being able to bring beautiful music as he sees it, from his garden to an audience."

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, begun with the donation of a family friend, was first held in 1962. Considered one of the most prestigious piano competitions, the Van Cliburn is held every four years in Texas.                                                                                    (from  Bill Zeeble, http://www.npr.org/blogs)

More new books

More new books to help stave off the winter blues.

In the 1980’s, teams of American and French scientists raced feverishly to isolate the AIDS virus.

The 19^th century saw the emergence of the field of paleontology. Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope were fierce competitors, each trying to discover more dinosaur fossils and publish more research than the other.

 

The journey back / Priscilla Cummings

Digger escapes a juvenile detention center, determined to return home and protect his mother and younger siblings from his abusive father. An injury hinders his progress, forcing him to hide in a campground. The friends and work he finds there help him come to terms with his past and discover the grace of second chances. (from Amazon.com)

The secret prophecy / Herbie Brennan

Edward Michael “Em” Goverton’s father is dead. Armed men attend the funeral. Then they begin following Em. Then Em discovers his father’s secret—“the key to a five-hundred-year-old deadly prediction by the prophet Nostradamus—[and] personal tragedy morphs into international crisis.” (from Amazon.com)

The miner's daughter / Gretchen Laskas

Sixteen year old Willa is a coal miner’s daughter. Her family is acquainted with hard work, worn clothes, black dust, and poverty. But Willa enjoys reading and is a talented writer. Can Eleanor Roosevelt’s initiatives provide opportunities for work, education, and security? (from Amazon.com)

Saving Grace / Katherine Spencer

When Grace’s brother died in a car crash the summer before her junior year of high school, life was divided into before and after Matt died. And in the after, Grace feels that everything in her life is pointless. “Enter Philomena, an odd new girl at school, to save the day: a self-proclaimed sort of guardian angel sent to help Grace pull it together and restore her faith.” (From Amazon.com)

 

Me, dead dad, and Alcatraz / Chris Lynch

“[Uncle] Alex broke me.”
“For goodness’ sake, you worked out at a gym.”

Elvin Bishop thought all of his father’s family was deceased. That is what his mother told him, and he had assumed she was a reliable source. But one day his uncle Alex arrived, and with tuba music, spicy food, and vigorous exercise, attempted to make a man out of Elvin. (from the book jacket)

  Time bomb / Nigel Hinton

"I’ve never told this story to anyone because when I was twelve
I swore an oath in blood that I would never tell it. But the friends I swore
it with are dead now, so it’s time to break that oath and tell the truth…”

In the summer of ’49, four friends discover an unexploded bomb and swear to tell no one. It is a “sin of omission that has the gravest consequences.” (from the book jacket)

The train jumper / Don Brown

Out of work and out of luck. Ed "Collie" Collier leaves home to search for his older brother. He finds a friend in a young drifter. They “encounter hobos, misers, racists, and even some kindness . . . as they join other men riding out the Great Depression by riding the rails.” (from Amazon.com)