DEATH : De Groote, Van Cliburn Winner, Dies
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South African concert pianist Steven de Groote, a Van Cliburn award winner who was an artist in residence at Texas Christian University, has died in a Johannesburg hospital. He was 36.
His family said De Groote had been hospitalized with liver and respiratory ailments since shortly after his May 7 return to South Africa from Texas. He died in a Johannesburg clinic Monday.
A news release from Texas Christian in Ft. Worth attributed his death to a liver inflammation. The release said De Groote left Ft. Worth two weeks ago to visit his family in South Africa.
De Groote also was to perform in three concerts before returning to Texas later this week.
The musician left South Africa to study in Brussels and with Rudolph Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He gained international fame by winning the fifth Van Cliburn international competition in 1977.
De Groote’s performing and teaching career was interrupted in 1985 by a near-fatal plane crash in Arizona that left him in a body cast for 10 months.
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