Piano competition news

12 semifinalists make the cut in 2022 Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth

Anna Geniushene, Russia, 31

Photo courtesy of The Cliburn

UPDATE 6-18-2022: The Cliburn Competition winners have been announced; find the list here.

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UPDATE 6-12-2022: The field was narrowed to six finalists tonight; find the list of finalists here.

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And then there were 12. The field of competitors in the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was cut to 12 semifinalists on June 6, meaning a dozen pianists are now halfway to the grand prize of $100,000, a gold medal, and an international career. Just two rounds to go.

The 12 semifinalists are:

Dmytro Choni, Ukraine, 28
Anna Geniushene, Russia, 31
Masaya Kamei, Japan, 20
Uladzislau Khandohi, Belarus, 20
Honggi Kim, South Korea, 30
Yunchan Lim, South Korea, 18
Jinhyung Park, South Korea, 26
Changyong Shin, South Korea, 28
Ilya Shmukler, Russia, 27
Clayton Stephenson, United States, 23
Yutong Sun, China, 26
Marcel Tadokoro, France/Japan, 28

Cliburn jury chair Marin Alsop made the announcement on stage at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU. It came after the conclusion of the two-day quarterfinals, in which 18 of the original 30 had played a 40-minute solo recital.

"On behalf of the jury, please know how deeply impressed we all are and what a difficult decision it was," she said.

The field is now dominated by South Korean candidates, with two of the initial six Russians remaining, and just one pianist from the United States.

American Clayton Stephenson has been an early Fort Worth audience favorite, as many remember him as a prize-winner in the inaugural Cliburn Junior Competition in 2015. Three other crowd favorites — Ilya Shmukler, Honggi Kim, and Yutong Sun — competed in the 2017 Cliburn International Competition.

And Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni has received warm and generous response from the audience inside the hall each time he's taken the stage. (One can't help but notice the documentary film crew's interest in him, too.)

Notably, Russian Anna Geniushene is the only remaining woman in the competition.

The semifinals will run June 8-12 at Bass Performance Hall. All 12 competitors will compete in two phases:

1. A 60-minute solo recital
2. A Mozart concerto (selected from a list), performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under conductor Nicholas McGegan.

Click on the contestants' names in the bulleted list, above, to find out what each is playing in the next round.

The semifinal round performance schedule is here. (There are no competition performances on Tuesday, June 7.)

Six finalists will be announced at the conclusion of play Sunday, June 12

Tickets are available here, and each performance will be webcast for free here.

Clayton Stephenson, 23, is the only remaining American in the competition and an audience favorite.

Clayton Stephenson, Cliburn quartertinals

Photo courtesy of The Cliburn

Clayton Stephenson, 23, is the only remaining American in the competition and an audience favorite.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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