Musician, pianist and teacher. She was the mother of the famous pianist, Van Cliburn. Growing up in McGregor, Texas, she received piano lessons from her mother, an accomplished violinist and pianist. After graduating from high school, she studied music at the Cincinnati Conservatory and later in New York at the Institute of Musical Art, later known as The Juilliard School. It was there that she studied under Arthur Friedheim, a Russian-born concert pianist and composer. Her dream was to become a concert pianist. Her father did not stop her from becoming a pianist at the time, but he did discourage her from pursuing a public concert career. She left her studies behind and returned to Texas, where she soon married Harvey Lavan Cliburn in 1923. By the time she became a mother at the age of thirty-seven, she had taught piano lessons and run a riverfront mission in Shreveport, Louisiana. She began teaching her son how to play the piano when he was three and continued until he entered the Juilliard School of Music at seventeen, coaching him through several of the pieces for which he later became famous, including Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1," Beethoven's "Emperor Concerto," and MacDowell's "Second Piano Cencerto." Van, her son, was quoted in an interview once as saying, "I always said she has better hands for the piano than I do. She never asked me to do anything at the keyboard she couldn't do herself." The University of Cincinnati and Baylor University presented her with Distinguished Alumna awards, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra honored her by dedicating its 1986–1987 season to her. In 2006, Cliburn was honored with an Achievement Award from the Music Teachers National Association.
Musician, pianist and teacher. She was the mother of the famous pianist, Van Cliburn. Growing up in McGregor, Texas, she received piano lessons from her mother, an accomplished violinist and pianist. After graduating from high school, she studied music at the Cincinnati Conservatory and later in New York at the Institute of Musical Art, later known as The Juilliard School. It was there that she studied under Arthur Friedheim, a Russian-born concert pianist and composer. Her dream was to become a concert pianist. Her father did not stop her from becoming a pianist at the time, but he did discourage her from pursuing a public concert career. She left her studies behind and returned to Texas, where she soon married Harvey Lavan Cliburn in 1923. By the time she became a mother at the age of thirty-seven, she had taught piano lessons and run a riverfront mission in Shreveport, Louisiana. She began teaching her son how to play the piano when he was three and continued until he entered the Juilliard School of Music at seventeen, coaching him through several of the pieces for which he later became famous, including Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1," Beethoven's "Emperor Concerto," and MacDowell's "Second Piano Cencerto." Van, her son, was quoted in an interview once as saying, "I always said she has better hands for the piano than I do. She never asked me to do anything at the keyboard she couldn't do herself." The University of Cincinnati and Baylor University presented her with Distinguished Alumna awards, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra honored her by dedicating its 1986–1987 season to her. In 2006, Cliburn was honored with an Achievement Award from the Music Teachers National Association.
Bio by: Debbie Gibbons
Inscription
Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn
1896 1994
Family Members
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