1ST ARS NOVA INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION GALA CONCERT / Photos

Everybody loves a winner, and there were winners aplenty at the 1st Ars Nova International Piano Competition. The Gala Concert and Prize-Giving ceremony was held on Saturday evening (4 August 2012) at the Lee Foundation Theatre of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Pung Rae Yue (Singapore, Junior under 9 years, 2nd Prize) opened the Gala Concert with an elegant reading of Chopin's F minor Waltz Op.72 No.1, spiced with lots of rubato.

Alyssa Kok (Singapore, Junior under 9 years, 1st Prize) was a total natural in the finale of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. Hers was very polished and had lots of flair.

Huang Yu Wei (Taiwan, Junior under 12 years, 2nd Prize) made Liszt's La Leggierezza sound positively  like child's play. That's exactly what Martha Argerich did in the 1950s.

Alexander Ronoyudo (Indonesia, Junior under 12 years, 1st Prize) knows exactly the meaning of scherzando in Liszt's Gnomenreigen. One judge, a Liszt expert, gave him a full score of 100.

Yao Yi Qing (China, Intermediate, 1st Prize) was the stand-out in that category, and proved her mettle in the florid embellishments of Chopin's Rondo Op.16. 

  

Dolpiti Kongviwatanakul (Thailand, Senior, 2nd prize) gave a most probing and variegated account of the Five Bagatelles by Australian composer Carl Vine.

  

Li Churen (Singapore, Senior, 1st prize) was positively scintillating in Moszkowski's Caprice Espagnole, and she knows exactly how to go for broke with the pyrotechnics.

The duo of Napat Sermwatana and Navardvadee Suthisomboon (Thailand, Duet Senior, 2nd prize) were the only prizewinners in the duet competition. Eight out of nine prizes were a-begging. Their account of Dvorak's Slavonic Dance Op.46 No.2 was musical rather than virtuosic.

  

Li Ti (China, Open, 3rd Prize) showing fluidity and fluency in Debussy's Etude No.11.

Wan Jing Jing (China, Open, 2nd Prize) takes a bow for her spectacular account of the Precipitato movement from Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata.

Zheng Qingshu (China, Open, 1st Prize) showed why she meant business in a masculine, rock-solid and no-holds-barred performance of Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No.1.

There were more girl winners than boy winners.

Winners of the older categories.

Take a bow, concert pianists of the future!

Serene Koh (Singapore, Senior, 3rd prize) and her teacher Angelyn Aw.

Sisters on the keyboard: Wan Jing Jing, Li Ti and Serene Koh (from L).

Piano adjudicator Robert Chamberlain (Australia) is flanked by two fellow countrymen,  Jocelyn  Kwok (Junior under 9, 3rd prize) and Elijah Abraham (Junior under 12, 3rd prize). Singapore's Alyssa Kok (Junior under9, 1st prize) completes this fine assembly. 

Alexander Ronoyudo (Indonesia, Junior under 12, 1st Prize) with his mother and rather young-looking grandfather.