S. de Groote; Noted Pianist of South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Concert pianist Steven de Groote, a Van Cliburn contest gold medal winner in 1977, has died in a Johannesburg clinic of tuberculosis of the liver, the hospital said Tuesday.

De Groote was 36 and died Monday at Brenthurst Clinic about 10 hours after being transferred to the intensive care unit, a spokesman said.

The spokesman said the South African was admitted to the clinic May 8 suffering from severe abdominal pains.

De Groote had recorded and played international concerts extensively since winning the prestigious Van Cliburn piano competition in Fort Worth in 1977. He was named artist-in-residence at Texas Christian University, which plays host to the preliminary rounds of the quadrennial competition.

He had returned to his homeland to visit his family and to perform shortly before his hospitalization. Concerts last week with the South Africa National Symphony Orchestra had to be canceled.

Formerly an associate professor of music at Arizona State University, De Groote left South Africa to study in Brussels and with Rudolph Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

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. He gradually resumed his career in the United States and Europe.

Survivors include his father, who conducts the Cape Town University Symphony in South Africa, and three brothers, who are also professional musicians.