For the past five days, I've been in Fort Worth, Texas, attending the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The musicians are extraordinary. The semi-finals ended yesterday. Six finalists were announced today. They are (in photographic order):

1. Yeol Eum Son, 23 (South Korea)
2. Haochen Zhang, 19 (China) 
3. Mariangela Vacatello, 27 (Italy) 
4. Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20 (Japan) 
5. Di Wu, 24 (China)
6. Evgeni Bozhanove, 25 (Bulgaria) 

The competition can be viewed live (and free) at http://www.cliburn.tv/. 

Now that I'm back in Oklahoma City, I've been following the competition by Webcast, and I'm amazed at the quality. In some ways, the experience is better than live. The cameras are capturing not only the actual performances, but the rehearsals with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestral rehearsals began today. If you've never eavesdropped on a young pianist rehearsing with an orchestra under the direction of an outstanding conductor (in this case, Maestro James Conlon), visit the Cliburn Web Site tomorrow. The camera will take you up close, allowing you to join the orchestra as it learns from Maestro Conlon's insightful comments. It's all live from Bass Hall.

I'll end this post with a performance of four etudes by Chopin, played by Nobuyuki Tsujii during the preliminary phase of the competition. Please note: Nobuyuki is blind. His recent performances have led many to redefine artistic genius. If you have time for only one Cliburn concert this week, watch Nobuyuki's upcoming performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto on Saturday, June 6, at 3:45 CST (http://www.cliburn.tv/).