The Performing Arts Center will present Alexander Kobrin, the gold medalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, on April 25 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. Tickets are $24, $19 or half-price for UGA students.
Kobrin’s Athens engagement coincides with the 50th anniversary of Cliburn’s stunning victory at the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow on April 14, 1958, at the height of the Cold War. Upon his return to the U.S., the 23-year-old Cliburn received a hero’s welcome in New York City with a ticker-tape parade, the first and only time the city has given such an honor to a classical musician. In addition to winning the Van Cliburn Competition, Kobrin received three years of international concert engagements, as well as a CD recording of his Van Cliburn Competition performances for the harmonia mundi usa label.
He was prominently featured in In the Heart of Music, the film documentary about the 12th Van Cliburn
Competition, which premiered on PBS stations across the U.S. in the fall of 2005.
The Moscow-born Kobrin was also the first prize winner of the 1999 Busoni Competition and a top prizewinner of both the 2000 Chopin and 2003 Hamamatsu competitions. When Kobrin is not performing, he teaches at the Moscow State Gnessin Academy of Music.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by Vanessa Tome, a music student at UGA. The lecture, which is open to the public, begins at 7:15 p.m.