“Martha Rowan Hyder, a tireless advocate for the arts and a force in making the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition truly global, died Thursday in her home,” writes Matthew Martinez in Saturday’s (8/19) Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas). “Mrs. Hyder served on the executive committee of the competition from 1962 through 1993 and helped establish the Cliburn Council, which holds lectures, concerts and benefits in the competition’s off years…. When the competition was in its infancy during the 1960s, she traveled the world, persuading dignitaries and the heads of other major piano competitions that the one she represented in her hometown of Fort Worth was equal to any of them. ‘We’ve had wonderful chairmen after her, but she set the standard,’ said John Giordano, jury chairman emeritus for the Cliburn.… She was vice president and trustee of the National Symphony in Washington … a board member of Friends of Carnegie Hall and a member of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies. Locally, Mrs. Hyder served on the executive committees of the boards of directors for the Fort Worth Symphony and Fort Worth Art Museum. She was also a supporter of Planned Parenthood, CASA Women’s Clinic, and the Hospital of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.”
Posted August 23, 2017
