DPA BRINGS CLASSICAL MUSIC FRONT AND CENTER AT PRESTIGIOUS VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

“It was great to be able to use DPA microphones exclusively on this project,” says Lazarus. “By using all one type of mic, the gain structure and character is almost identical from mic to mic, even within various DPA models. In addition, the DPA mics pick up the subtle nuances amongst the pianos, which is great because we don’t want them to sound the same. We want each piano’s color and character to shine through all the time.”

For the competition, Lazarus wanted to showcase the sound quality the mics were capturing during the live performances, so he created a listening booth in the lobby of the hall. Lazarus set up four different stereo pairs of mics that are fed via Dante™ to a system in the lobby of the concert hall. With headphones and a switcher, visitors were able to select and listen to four different microphones and placements. When the competition was not in-action, Lazarus looped the performances so visitors were able to listen at any time. 

In addition to the high-quality sound, Lazarus has been very happy with the reliability of his DPA mics. “All the mics worked great,” adds Lazarus. “That may sound silly but some of these runs are 500 feet long. Rather than having preamps in the ceiling for all the mics, I had to put preamps on the stage, so it’s a long run to hang some of these mics and they are clean and quiet without any issues with RF. Not one problem. DPA delivers very good sounding, single point 5.1. You hang one mic and one cable and it sounds great.  Every mic has worked and stayed true, which is rare in my world. This turned out to be another fantastic competition and I am very happy with the result.”

Widely regarded as one of the top recording engineers/producers of today, Lazarus has recorded and mixed projects for a broad spectrum of artists ranging from Ray Charles, Renée Fleming and Björk to Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Redman and Ravi Shankar. Lazarus has won 9 Grammy® Awards and has recorded multiple Oscar®, Emmy® and Tony® award-winning projects. In addition, he produced and engineered the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition DVD, which won the broadcasting and cable industry's most prestigious honor, the George Foster Peabody Award.

The quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has been called “the most prestigious classical music contest in the world” by the Chicago Tribune. It remains committed to its original ideals of supporting and launching the careers of young artists, ages 18–30. Since 2001, the competition has been held at the Bass Performance Hall. The competition is named in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958. The winners and runners-up receive substantial cash prizes, plus concert tours at world-famous venues where they perform pieces of their choice. The competition consists of up to three full recital programs, new work performance, chamber music and two concertos for each competitor.