“[Van] Cliburn was such a perfectionist and so critical of his own work that after a concert he would console himself by vowing to play those pieces again, after more practice, to improve his performance. He only bowed for applause out of gratitude that somebody was clapping.”

The above drawing and blurb are by our Artist-in-Residence, Flash Rosenberg. She sits at a drawing station during most of our programs and draws the conversations LIVE, then turns them into Conversation Portraits. For instance, she illustrated our May 15 program with Van Cliburn, who is celebrating his 78th birthday today! See more of Flash’s drawings from the evening here… and watch/listen to the full program here…