Van Cliburn Diagnosed With Advanced Bone Cancer

Back in the day. I mean way back in the day in 1958, a 23 year old Texan named Van Cliburn went to Moscow and won the international Tchaikovsky competition for pianists. It was such a huge deal that New York City gave him a ticker tape parade. He was the biggest star in America after he accomplished that feat. It was during the height of the cold war and this was a kid no one had heard of and went straight to Moscow and won. In terms of upsets, it is kind of like when a California wine went to France and won the best wine of the year. Van performed all over the world but after 20 years decided to give it a rest because he was tired of performing. He moved back to Texas and started his own piano competition which is held every four years in Ft. Worth. After taking about a ten year break he started playing publicly again. His is an amazing story. He is 78.