The Amateur Cliburn

Overview

• Preliminary round: 1-5 p.m., 7:30-10:30 p.m. today-Wednesday.

• Semifinal round: 2-5:30 p.m., 7:30-11 p.m. Friday.

• Finals and awards: 2-7 p.m. Saturday.

• $10 for each preliminary session, $20 for each semifinal session, $35 for finals and awards.

• $105 for complete competition; $60 for semifinals, finals and awards

• (817) 335-9000

Today at the Cliburn

Medical and financial specialists will dominate the field today on the opening day of the Cliburn Foundation's fourth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs at Texas Christian University.

Seventy-four competitors representing 26 states and six foreign countries will present short solo programs over three days with hopes of advancing to the semifinals Thursday. Twenty-five will play today.

Romantic and impressionist favorites will dominate the repertoire today, from the opening Chopin (the Etude in F and Ballade in G minor) offered by Scot King -- a mortgage broker from Lake Forest, Calif. -- to the Chopin Etude in C minor, which real estate professional David Kish of Portsmouth, N.H., will play to close the day. Kish will also present, along with a Schubert Impromptu in A-flat, his own Serenade for Piano.

In between, along with lots more Chopin, music lovers will hear generous doses of Rachmaninoff, two performances of Debussy's flashy and difficult L'isle joyeuse and plenty of Bach, including preludes and fugues of the 18th-century master performed by both of the day's local entries: piano technician Doug Parsons and railroad manager Alex Kreyn.

Beginning Tuesday, Encore will have daily reviews from the competition.

-- Wayne Lee Gay

Other performances

There are several other chances to hear Amateur Cliburn competitors, past and present, this week:

• On Thursday, 2002 Amateur Cliburn co-winner Michael Hawley will join the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra to play the Liszt Second Piano Concerto for a fireworks-capped concert at the Botanic Garden.

• The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will host a piano marathon, in which Amateur Cliburn contestants who do not make it to the semifinals will perform selections from their repertoire. The first session will be 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, and the second will be 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday. These sessions will be free and open to the public.