Introducing your 14th Van Cliburn First Place Gold Winner, Vadym Kholodenko! This is the last of our series on the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition. Our original post featured the background story about the Van Cliburn Competition, along with images from the 6 finalists. Then we featured the Sean Chen, and Beatrice Rana in their own posts as they received the honor of 3rd and 2nd place, respectively. We’ve now come time to tell you about the Gold Place Winner, Vadym! From Ukraine, Vadym Kholodenko practiced from 8–10 hours a day in preparation for the Cliburn. For his performance of Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 at the final round of the Cliburn competition, he composed his own cadenza on the plane ride to Fort Worth. Quite impressive! I was honored to be the photographer for these winners. We went to Van Cliburn’s estate to take photographs for Vadym’s career management. These photos and others will be used for marketing and promotional material for Vadym, one of the perks of winning first! The Van Cliburn estate was amazing! It was truly special to walk around in the home of such an accomplished Pianist. Vadym fit right in the luxurious halls and at the bench of Cliburn’s own Steinway. Congratulations on your incredible award, Vadym! You are an amazing Pianist to watch!  Good luck in the rest of your career!