In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, the 23-year old Texan Van Cliburn won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. The Russians loved him, Nikita Khrushchev gave him a bear hug, and New Yorkers honored him with a ticker-tape parade. His signature pieces:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/music/van-cliburn-pianist-dies-at-78.html?hp
