It may be hard to believe today, but in 1958, a piano concert was as big on the international news pages of the world as the 1980 U.S.-Russia Olympic semifinal hockey game would be decades later. That ...

On this date in 1958, 23-year-old Van Cliburn, of Kilgore, shocked the world by winning the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Held during the Cold War between the United ...

When the United States and Soviet Union were bristling, missiles aimed at each other, a piano was the unlikely weapon that made Van Cliburn "the Texan Who Conquered Russia." Time magazine awarded that ...

Van Cliburn performs for adoring fans at the Moscow Conservatory following his historic victory at the First Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 1958. (Cliburn Foundation) See Caption / ...