Art&Seek and TheaterJones  are partnering up during the Van Cliburn competition. Earlier today, we posted Stephen Becker’s profile of Alex McDonald, the Plano native who is vying for this year’s title.  Here are links to bios of each competitor on Theater Jones and details about this year’s competition.

• Nikita Abrosimov, 24, Russia (published May 20, 2013)
• Luca Buratto, 20, Italy (published May 14, 2013)
• Sean Chen, 24, USA (published May 15, 2013)
• Alexey Chernov, 30, Russia (published May 18, 2013)
• Sara Daneshpour, 26, USA (published May 21, 2013)
• Alessandro Deljavan, 26, Italy (published May 21, 2013)
• Fei-Fei Dong, 22, China (published May 15, 2013)
• François Dumont, 27, France (published May 16, 2013)
• Yury Favorin, 26, Russia (published May 22, 2013)
• Lindsay Garritson, 25, USA (published May 13, 2013)
• Jayson Gillham, 26, Australia/U.K. (published May 18, 2013)
• Giuseppe Greco, 23, Italy (published May 22, 2013)
• Ruoyo Huang, 24, China (published May 20, 2013)
• Claire Huangci, 23, USA (published May 22, 2013)
• Vadym Kholodenko, 26, Ukraine (published May 15, 2013)
• Nikolay Khozyainov, 20, Russia (published May 19, 2013)
• Marcin Koziak, 24, Poland (published May 16, 2013)
• Kuan-Ting Lin, 21, Taiwan (published May 13, 2013)
• Steven Lin, 24, Taiwan (published May 19, 2013)
• Alex McDonald, 30, USA (published May 17, 2013)
• Gustavo Miranda-Bernales, Chile (published May 20, 2013)
• Nikita Mndoyants, 24, Russia (published May 14, 2013)
• Oleksandr Poliykov, 25, Ukraine (published May 16, 2013)
• Beatrice Rana, 20, Italy (published May 17, 2013)
• Tomoki Sakata, 19, Japan (published May 14, 2013)
• Scipione Sangiovanni, 25, Italy (published May 13, 2013)
• Yekwon Sunwoo, 24, South Korea (published May 17, 2013)
• Alessandro Taverna, 29, Italy (published May 19, 2013)
• Jie Yuan, 27, China (published May 18, 2013)
• Eric Zuber, 28, USA (published May 21, 2013)

They were chosen from 132 applicants who auditioned for a five-member screening jury in Hong Kong, Hanover, Moscow, Milan, New York and Fort Worth in January and February, 2013.

The 2013 Cliburn Competition competitors hail from all over the world, representing 12 countries: the United States (7), Italy (6), Russia (5), China (3), Ukraine (2), Australia, Chile, France, Japan, South Korea, Poland and Taiwan. They range in age from 19 to 30. 

TICKETS: For additional information about and to purchase tickets for the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, visit www.cliburn.org/cliburn-competition/tickets/

JURY: Maestro John Giordano (United States) will serve as chairman of the jury for his eleventh competition since he assumed the post in 1973. Other jury members include: Dmitri Alexeev (Russia), Michel Beroff (France), Andrea Bonatta (Italy), Richard Dyer (United States), Joseph Kalichstein (Israel), Yoheved Kaplinsky (Israel), Liu Shih Kun (China), Minoru Nojima (Japan), Menahem Pressler (United States), Blanca Uribe (Colombia), Arie Vardi (Israel), and Xian Zhang (China).

WEBCAST: For those who cannot attend the Competition, all performances will be streamed live in their entirety and available on-demand at Cliburn.org, making it possible for virtually anyone anywhere to experience the music. We will also stream the webcast in our TheaterJones special section.

The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will take place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall and will welcome 30 of the world’s finest pianists to Texas. Continuing its longstanding commitment to new music, the Cliburn has selected composer Christopher Theofanidis to write the commissioned work that will be performed by all competitors during the Semifinal Round. Additionally, the competition has been dedicated to showcasing both the extraordinary talent of its competitors in recital performance as well as their ability to collaborate with other musicians. The Fourteenth Competition will mark the first Cliburn appearance by the world-renowned Brentano String Quartetperforming a piano quintet with each of the 12 semifinalists. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, which has appeared at every Cliburn Competition, will perform two concerti with each of the six finalists, under the baton of Maestro Leonard Slatkin for the first time.