BWW Previews: VAN CLIBURN TRIBUTE Comes to the Kauffman Center, 4/4

The Park University International Center for Music makes their debut at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Friday April 4 with the Van Cliburn Tribute Concert in Helzberg Hall. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the ICM, founded by Stanislav Ioudenitch who was a gold medalist in the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Ioudenitch has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Gasteig in Munich, the International Performing Arts Center in Moscow, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing among others. The 2009 winner of the London International Piano Competition Behzod Abduraimov and the Park Piano Trio will join him on stage.

Cliburn was an American pianist and personal inspiration to Ioudenitch, who in 1958 won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, at the height of the cold war. "Van was truly a 'Citizen of the Planet,' whose music transcended political and cultural boundaries," said Ioudenitch. "We remember him as not only our spiritual brother, but also as a kind and generous mentor. I loved him, like so many who were privileged to know him."

Born in Tashkent in 1990 Abduraimov began playing the piano at age five and was a student of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent. At the age of 18 his electrifying performance of "Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3," won him the 2009 London International Piano Competition. In 2012, he released his debut recital CD on Decca Classics. The disc won both the Choc de Classica and the Diapason Decouverte. In the last two year, he has performed twice with the Kansas City Symphony.

The April 4 production at the Kauffman Center includes Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Suite No. 1 for Two Pianos," Peter Tchaikovsky's "Piano Trio in A Minor" and ICM Director Ingrid Stolzel's original work "In the Midst for Solo Piano," written for Ioudenitch in memory of Cliburn.

Purchase tickets at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts website, by calling 816-994-7222 or at the Kauffman Center Box Office at 1601 Broadway. Photo by Christian Fatu.