It’s a Saturday evening at DFW airport, where a crowd of people has gathered to wait in the terminal for a flight coming direct from Dublin, Ireland. Three people in the crowd are holding signs with the Cliburn logo, bearing various names in big black letters. They are three of the 30 local families volunteering to host Cliburn competitors, who have all been flying into North Texas over the course of a few days. Most are arriving on international flights. Dirk Maney is there, holding a sign for Callum McLachlin, a 26-year-old from the United Kingdom. They’re meeting in person for the first time. This is Dirk’s third time to host a Cliburn competitor.
“I think the part I love the best is just creating an environment where they feel comfortable and relaxed, and can do their very best,” Maney says. “Just let them kind of do what they need to do and have time to themselves, and I’ll jump in when they need me or need some help.”
But a couple of the other families in the terminal are first-timers, such as Ed Lasater. He’s waiting for 28-year-old Canadian-born competitor Alice Burla, who’s currently based in Switzerland. Even though it’s the Lasaters’ first time hosting, they are not unfamiliar with the Cliburn and what’s involved. “We were exposed because my parents hosted two competitors in the past and I knew a little bit about what’s entailed,” Lasater says. “We had children graduating from undergraduate and graduate school and we had an empty house and a space for it. The time was right for us.”
Also standing nearby are Brian and Carla Luig, greeting 23-year-old Elia Cecino from Italy. This is also the Luigs’ first year to be hosts, but Brian says they’re ready for the three very busy weeks ahead. “It’s a pretty hectic schedule for the competitors. We are their transportation, we’re their meals, we’re everything they need for them to be comfortable and successful in their competition efforts.”
Ask any previous person who has competed in The Cliburn and there’s a good chance they’ll tell you that Fort Worth will always be a special place to them. When these young pianists come to the city to compete, most have already been traveling internationally for years, have a long list of competitions under their belts, and often have multiple music diplomas from some of the world’s best conservatories. But when they make it to The Cliburn, they get a big bite of true Texas hospitality.
“You have to be nurturing to a large extent and really engage with them at their level,” says Jon Suder, who has been serving as a host longer than any other family in the competition. This will mark his sixth time, though he’s been involved with the Cliburn in one way or another since moving to Texas in the 80s. “Keep it light, keep them focused. But at the same time, make them go to these events. Make them get interviewed. Do the things they don’t want to do, because that’s going to be their life’s chosen career.”
Jon inside DFW’s Terminal D, waiting for 26-year-old Italian competitor Federico Gad Crema to arrive. “Freddie,” as Jon refers to him, also competed in the previous Cliburn and stayed with the Suders. Since then, Jon and his wife made visits to Europe and met up with Freddie’s family. Jon’s face brightens as he finally sees Freddie stride through the swinging doors, smiling, and wearing sunglasses, not unlike a rock star arriving at LAX. Jon gives him a fatherly bear hug and teases him about the shades. His advice to those hosting for the first time is straightforward.
“One, you have to know the schedule. Two, you have to take the role of being a parent and work with them. It’s a collaborative effort on keeping them on task. And then when they don’t advance, you need to let them unwind, have fun. They still need to go to the events, and they have to meet all the agents, do the interviews — because not everyone wins. The fact that you’re here means that you’re going to have a very successful career as a pianist, and you have to embrace and focus on the other aspects, because just being here and making it this far – you’ve effectively won.”
So, how DO these families get matched with their competitors? It’s all handled by the hosting committee, and the process is actually a little old school.
“The committee has a match party and it takes about three hours,” says Adelaide Leavens, the chair of the Cliburn’s host family committee, explaining that they gather around a conference table and spread lists of what each host family wants, and what their parameters are – smoking/non-smoking, pets, etc. Then they lay out cards with each competitor’s face and preferences. “And then we just start matching,” she says.
One of the first things the committee looks for when they visit a potential host’s home is whether they have space to accommodate not just a guest, but also a whole piano. Each competitor gets to pick out a Steinway to be delivered to the home, and they’ll usually spend 8 to 10 hours a day practicing. But aside from the logistical requirements, the hosts need to be informed of the other responsibilities, like providing meals, transportation, and a place that feels like home.
Sixteen of the 30 families this year are new, and part of the committee’s job is to make sure they have all the support they need before and during the competition.
“We meet personally with each of the new host families,” Leavens says. “And we tell them, ‘You’re going to get emotionally involved and it’s going to be hard or it’s going to be glorious.’ But you can only describe that to a certain point and then they’ve just got to experience it for themselves.”
For the host families, it’s hard not to be emotionally invested in the success of their competitor, sharing the joy when one succeeds to the next round, and the heartbreak of elimination. But throughout the whole process, they provide that comfortable homebase for these young pianists, who, after elimination from previous rounds, stay through the duration of the competition to take part in various community concerts and other social events around town up until the last day.
On a lazy Tuesday afternoon at lunchtime, Alice Burla and Ellie Lasater are enjoying some downtime in the kitchen of the Lasaters’ 1920s Tudor- style home in Fort Worth’s historic Berkeley Place neighborhood, where five families within a couple blocks of each other are hosting for the first time. They’ve been nicknamed the Berkeley Bunch. Alice had made it up through to the quarterfinals, so the previous couple of weeks had been pretty intense with practicing. “Our schedules are a little different,” Ellie says with a grin.”We like to go to bed early and Alice likes to stay up late and practice in the evenings. I think for the most part, we all do breakfast and lunch on our own. We’ve gone out for lunch, too. It just kind of depends on the day.”
The Lasaters have a separate room attached to the back of the house where Alice can practice on the piano supplied by Steinway. A couple of the walls have floor to ceiling windows that look out over their lush, leafy backyard, which backs up to a creek. They call it the tree house.
“In the first couple of days, I was sort of spreading my practice throughout the day in smaller chunks because of jet lag,” Alice says, adding that she would eventually practice through the night, only stopping to catch a little sleep. During those nights, however, she usually skipped going to her bedroom in the main house and curled up next to the piano.
“One of the great things is to feel like you are, in a way, at home away from home,” she says. “I think the best thing is actually getting to know your host family and spend time together. You get close and get to know each other and there’s a home feeling that you wouldn’t get from staying alone in a hotel. It’s been nice to also just do things together, grab lunch, go somewhere.”
Sometimes, a competitor will bring someone with them, usually either a teacher or a family member. That was the case for 18-year-old Chinese competitor Xuanxiang Wu (usually referred to a “Sean” by non-Mandarin speakers). He’s the youngest competitor in the competition and brought his mom. They’re staying with Cindy Will, who lives in a tightly knit neighborhood of Arlington, where 1950s ranch style homes are canopied by towering oaks.
Cindy has a rambunctious Great Pyrenees named Odin, who has become attached to Sean and his mom. Some competitors may request to be in a home without a pet for various reasons, but others, such as Sean, like the extra company. And really, there’s less of a language barrier with animals. Cindy has even taught them how to get Odin to sit for treats.
“I like dogs,” Sean says with a smile. “It’s different, because you need to talk with people. But with animals, it feels like it’s heart to heart.”
Even though Sean’s mom doesn’t speak English, she and Cindy use a translate app on their phones. “We giggle,” Cindy says, while pulling up the app on her phone. “Some of it’s funny…. There are things that we take for granted that, maybe in another culture, or the way things are said, it’s done differently.” Cindy adds that one of the first things she told Sean and his mom upon their arrival was that her house was their house. This is her fourth time to host, so she’s got some traditions when her competitor gets in to Texas. “Usually what I do is go to Whataburger, because I think that’s Texas… That is a biggie.” Cindy pulls out a postcard from Han Chen, who stayed with her during the 2017 Cliburn. She still keeps in touch with all of her competitors. As is so often the case with the hosts, they become family.
And it goes without saying that you’ve got to really enjoy hearing a lot of piano music. As Sean sat down to play Chopin’s opus 25 Etude no. 1, Cindy, his mom, and Odin sat quietly on the living room couches to listen. “I love sitting here and listening to him play, because I have some favorites that I love listening to…. It fills the whole house up with joy.”
A few of the competitors will be hanging around Fort Worth once the Cliburn competition wraps up. Sean, for example, will be taking part in the Piano Texas festival at TCU in June. Others will fly back to where they’re based to prepare for the next big competition or next big concert. But they all leave The Cliburn with more friends they had before they came, a bonus family, and a special place in their heart for Fort Worth, Texas – where the hospitality of its people mirrors the genteel, kindhearted man for whom the competition was named.
-AMY BISHOP
