Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy, Dies at 78

[lsanderson]

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: February 27, 2013

Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died on Wednesday at his home in Fort Worth. He was 78. Moar