The youngest participant in the 2009 Cliburn Competition, Haochen Zhang (age 19) gave his debut recital at the Shanghai Music Hall at the age of five, performing all of Bach’s two-part inventions, as well as sonatas by Haydn and Mozart. He performed with orchestra at age six, and moved to the United States at fifteen to attend the Curtis Institute of Music. First-prize winner of the 2007 China International Piano Competition, Mr. Zhang has performed with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Krakow State Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and has concertized throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. He also excels at ping pong and enjoys writing poetry.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.

The Van Cliburn Competition is held every four years (the year after the United States Presidential elections; thus, the next competitions will be held in 2009, 2013, and so forth). The winners and runners-up receive substantial cash prizes, plus concert tours at world-famous venues where they perform pieces of their choice. Previously held on the campus of Texas Christian University, the competition is now held at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.