32ND SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL / Review

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

PIANO FESTIVAL 2026

Victoria Concert Hall / The Arts House

Thursday to Sunday (2-5 July 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 July 2026 with the title "Jazz and pop spice up Singapore International Piano Festival under Albert Tiu's direction".

Piano recitals are dime a dozen these days, showcasing a bewildering choice of international and local artists. The Singapore International Piano Festival (SIPF), now in its 32nd edition, remains the nation’s marquee event, distinguished by unity yet diversity, and strong artist and repertoire-based curation. With fifth artistic director Albert Tiu (head of piano in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory) at the helm, the festival has made changes. There were six recitals for the first time, with the uncommon theme of concert pianist as composer, transcriber and improviser.

Photo: LG Lim

Conrad Tao (United States of America) last appeared here as a teenage prodigy at the 2009 Singapore Sun Festival. His recital Emigres and Friends on 2 July comprised 15 short works reflecting his homeland as a melting pot of cultures, where jazz, popular music and atonality found healthy parity.

With George Gershwin songs (The Man I Love, Clap Yo’ Hands, I Got Rhythm) performed alongside Arnold Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic miniatures, variations from Sergei Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody as viewed through the lenses of Tao and Art Tatum, Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine sandwiching Billy Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge, something special and liberating was taking place. Firing on all cylinders in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with forearm clusters flashing through its cadenza, one could be forgiven for imagining a full jazz band backing him to the hilt.

Hyung-ki Joo (United Kingdom) was the keyboard half of the musical comedy duo Igudesman and Joo (I&J). Dreams and Nightmares on 3 July saw an exploration of childhood, with pieces Lina’s Waltz and Lullaby for Leo written for his children. Their simplicity and innocence were complemented by seven delightful pieces from Childhood, reliving his early years quite similar to Robert Schumann’s reflections in Kinderszenen.

Photo: LG Lim

The improvisatory segment saw jazzy asides to Debussy’s The Little Shepherd and Golliwogg’s Cakewalk from Children’s Corner Suite as conceived by Gwilym Simcock and Leszek Mozdzer’s anarchical treatment of Frederic Chopin shorts. Whiplash-inducing accounts of the Scarbo from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and La Valse closed each half in a state of intoxication. His encores were a throwback to I&J schtick, with singing, whistling and plucking piano strings to Bach’s Air on G String, and getting director Tiu and Sunday’s pianist “Jackie” Parker to participate in his foot-stomping Funk Yeah!

Photo: LG Lim

Sean Chen (USA) was bronze medallist at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In Music and Magic on 5 July afternoon, the world premiere of his exuberant Daydream No.2: Flight was kinetically charged, combining jazz harmonies and rhythms with late Romantic influences. Crispness of phrasing in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s pieces, in original baroque writing and as transcribed by Leopold Godowsky, was a pleasure to behold.

Photo: LG Lim

His own transcription of Paul Dukas’ Sorceror’s Apprentice was so convincingly Lisztian as to simulate a one-man-orchestra. Preceding that with Gyorgy Ligeti’s pointillistic Der Zauberlehrling was a touch of genius. His traversal of the entire Italian Book of Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage – seven works in all – was breathtaking, uniting lyricism of Three Petrarch Sonnets with hell-fire barnstorming in the Dante Sonata.

Photo: LG Lim

Jon Kimura Parker (Canada), winner of the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, last performed here in the late 1980s with the Singapore and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. Structure and Spontaneity on 5 July evening opened with sonatas by Mozart (K.311) and Beethoven (the Appassionata). By improvising passages leading into Mozart, he relived the lost art of preluding. With added ornaments, he also made one listen to old works anew.

Photo: LG Lim

Even more freedom was displayed in the second half, which included Ravel’s impressionistic Jeux d’eau, Chinese-Canadian composer Alexina Louie’s Memories in an Ancient Garden – a hazy opium-induced trance - and minimalist musings of John Adams’ China Gates. For their faith, the entranced audience also received doses of Chick Corea (Got A Match?) and Oscar Peterson (Blues Etude) and to bring down the house, his riotous take on Elton John’s Bennie and The Jets.

Two Singaporean pianists performed one-hour late night (10 pm) recitals at the Play Den of The Arts House. Churen Li’s recital Echoes and Reflections on 2 July could be described as a dream. Opening with Claude Debussy’s Clair de lune, the theme of night saw motifs and fragments recurring like an idee fixe.

Original compositions were improvised from melodies by Robert Schumann, Wolfgang Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and others, using altered harmonies and later going off tangent to nether reaches. Good Night, after Leos Janacek’s On the Overgrown Path, was hauntingly beautiful, while Dream of the Panthere boldly quoted from Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata. By the final piece Burning Moon, Clair de lune had been transformed to the glorious light of day.

Photo: LG Lim

Restless Natures exactly describes Jonathan Shin, whose recital on 3 July matched Parker’s for sheer eclecticism. His night incantation provided an illusion of a smoky nightclub, followed by Mozart’s quasi-improvisatory Fantasy in D minor (K.397), notoriously unfinished, but duly completed by Shin. The House Sings involved the audience, from choosing a theme (Promenade from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition) and recorded segments being aired from their handphones.

Cervantes Dreams Recurrent Dreams of Consumerism was a fantasy on what the Spaniard might have thought of the Japanese naming a discount store after his literary anti-hero. Works by Lili Boulanger, Bobby Ge, Nico Muhly, Takashi Yoshimatsu and Timo Andres were thrown into the mix before closing with Nathaniel Parks’ From A Great Distance, mixing electronics and recorded voice fragments to recount the Covid pandemic.

The refreshing changes taken by this festival under Tiu’s inspired direction constituted a brave new world. More is needed and “Vive la difference”!

The Singapore International Piano Festival was presented by the Singapore Symphony Group.

PHOTOS FROM THE 32ND SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL

The 32 Singapore International Piano Festival (2-5 July 2026) has come and gone. And what an adventure that was. For all who love the piano, for its infinite variety of repertoire and possibilities, this was a refreshingly different and liberating experience. The theme of the concert pianist as composer, transcriber and improviser threw up a diversity of piano music one would never have thought could actually be programmed.

Never had so many pianists (six) played their own music, either original works or in improvisations. For the first time, the music of Arnold Schoenberg and John Adams appeared in a pianofest recital. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue made its belated pianofest debut, as did an entire book of Liszt's Annees de pelerinage. The music of women composers, Lili Boulanger, Alexina Louie and Churen Li were heard. Also for the first time, there were late night concerts, which ended near midnight. 

Da new boss

For all these firsts and superlatives, we have 5th artistic director Albert Tiu to thank, for his spirit of curiosity, innovation and adventure. Piano playing from "outside the box" has been a credo of his, and long may that continue, or at least for the next five years. Here are the photos, in chronological sequence, taken from my camera and LG Lim's smartphone.

Thursday (2 July 2026)

Conrad Tao loved the idea that Gershwin and
Schoenberg were tennis kakis, while
Rachmaninov fancied Art Tatum's playing.

Concert pianist or punk rocker?

There are no pianists more elegant
than Churen Li.

Friday (3 July 2026)

Oops, wrong photo!
That's Karen Aw and Lee Tan Ni
from the SLO Madama Butterfly
production next door in Victoria Theatre.

Hyung-ki Joo gets much more work
now that Igudesman is far away.

The only time in PianoFest history
where the pianist gets to sing, whistle,
pluck and strike piano strings.

The only time in PianoFest history
where the artistic director and pianist from
another recital get to gatecrash.

The totally original origami
folded programme (by Jonathan Lim)
of Jonathan Shin's recital.

Jonathan Shin's programme included
Shin, Mozart, Boulanger, Ge, Muhly,
Yoshimatsu, Andres and Parks. 

Saturday (4 July 2026)

After Jon Kimura Parker's masterclass.

Sunday (5 July 2026)

Sean Chen being totally absorbed
in his playing.

His transcription of the slow movement
from J.S.Bach's Violin Sonata No.3
was totally delectable.

Can one get more eclectic than
Jon Kimura Parker playing
Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, 
Adams, Louie, Parker, Chick Corea,
Oscar Peterson and Sir Elton John?

Little wonder he is smiling!

Albert Tiu, Sean Chen and their wives.

Pianomaniac shows JKP
photos from 1984.

By golly, those guys look like us!

Sean Chen is a perfect role model
for young pianists.

No.2 and No.5
(but this is not a SPECTRE meeting)

SIX PIANO RECITALS NOT TO MISS: 32ND SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL

 

32ND SINGAPORE

INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL

2-5 JULY 2026

Under the visionary curation of new Artistic Director Albert Tiu, the Singapore International Piano Festival receives a new lease of life. The overriding theme of this year’s festival is the pianist as composer, transcriber and improviser. These disparate qualities of a piano virtuoso have long been forgotten, as one needs to go far back into history to encounter personalities like Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni, Sergei Rachmaninov and Percy Grainger to realise what modern day performers have lost.

Yes, we do have pianists like Marc-Andre Hamelin, Stephen Hough and Gabriela Montero with us, but Albert Tiu has unearthed six pianists (including two Singaporeans) who live with this ethos, a throwback to the “Golden Age of piano playing”. Four full-length recitals at Victoria Concert Hall and two late night recitals at the Play Den of The Arts House beckon, a chance to listen to repertoire spanning the baroque to modern day, and illuminating piano-playing with new ears.

Here are the recitals and some highlights

Thursday 2 July 2026, 7.30 pm

Emigres and Friends

CONRAD TAO

includes original compositions, Ravel Sonatine, Schoenberg Klavierstucke Op.33, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

Thursday 2 July 2026, 10 pm

Echoes and Refractions

CHUREN LI

includes original compositions, Ravel Ondine & Mendelssohn-Liszt On Wings of Song

Friday 3 July 2026, 7.30 pm

Dreams and Nightmares

HYUNG-KI JOO

includes original compositions, Ravel Gaspard de la nuit & La Valse, J.S.Bach Partita No.1

Friday 3 July 2026, 10 pm

Restless Natures

JONATHAN SHIN

includes original compositions, Mozart Fantasy in D minor, Lili Boulanger Deux Morceaux

Sunday 5 July 2026, 3pm

Music and Magic

SEAN CHEN

includes original compositions, Rameau Gavotte, Dukas-Chen The Sorceror’s Apprentice, Liszt Italie from Annees de pelerinage

Sunday 5 July 2026, 7.30 pm

Structure and Spontaneity

JON KIMURA PARKER

includes original compositions, Mozart Sonata K.311, Beethoven Appassionata Sonata, Ravel Jeux d’eau, John Adams China Gates

Tickets available at SISTIC:

Singapore International Piano Festival | Singapore Symphony Orchestra

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2014)

VOYAGES

CONRAD TAO, Piano

EMI Classics 9344762 / ****1/2

When a musical child prodigy has to decide on whether to become a concert pianist or composer, what does one do? In the case of Illinois-born Chinese pianist Conrad Tao (born 1994), who studies in the Juilliard School, the answer is to pursue both. Voyages, his début commercial album juxtaposes his original compositions with well-established classics.  Vestiges (2011-12), a suite of four short and tonally alluring pieces, begin where impressionists Debussy and Ravel left off. Their pages of limpid and shimmering textures, abetted by actual melody interest (all too rare a commodity among contemporary composers), are a pleasure to listen to.

The two longest movements, Upon Being and Upon Viewing Two Porcelain Figures, contrast brooding contemplation with joyous rapture. These pieces sit well between a selection of Rachmaninov Préludes and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, works of similar inspiration, which receive ravishing readings. Tao’s Iridescence (2012) mixes the piano with programmed tones from his iPad, a nod to 21^st century technology and popular culture. This and Meredith Monk’s minimalistic Railroad (Travel Song) bookend an ingeniously programmed recital disc from a very fine pianist and unusually keen intellect.

STANFORD Piano Concerto No.2

Variations on Down Among The Dead Men

FINGHIN COLLINS, Piano

RTE National Symphony

Kenneth Montgomery

Claves 50-1101 / ****1/2

When encountering a Second Piano Concerto in C minor and a set of variations for piano and orchestra, one would be excused for thinking the composer to be Rachmaninov. Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was an Irishman who became founding Professor of Composition at London’s Royal College of Music and Cambridge, and one of the leading British composers before the rise to fame of Edward Elgar. Composed in 1911, his Piano Concerto No.2 echoes Rachmaninov’s famous number at the outset with sweeping piano arpeggios accompanying a broad melody by the orchestra. Its second subject resembles the big melody in Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu but the development owes more to the influence of Brahms.

All this suggests a derivative work, but it is nevertheless an extremely well-crafted and gratifying for the listener who enjoys Saint-Saëns, Dvorak and Tchaikovky. The Variations on Down Among The Dead Men is based on an English drinking song, with the “dead men” being a reference to empty bottles rather than corpses. Its form is reminiscent of Brahms’s Haydn Variations and Franck’s Symphonic Variations, but the scintillating piano writing and integration with the orchestra looks forward to Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody and Dohnanyi’s Nursery Tune Variations. Irishman Finghin Collins and Ireland’s national orchestra give persuasive performances that will win the works many new friends.

SINGAPORE SUN FESTIVAL 2009 Concerts / Review

SINGAPORE SUN FESTIVAL
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Wednesday, Friday & Saturday 

(7, 9 & 10 October 2009)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 12 October 2009.

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra was the resident orchestra for the 2009 Singapore Sun Festival. Although it did not boast the “brand name” status of the Russian National or Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras of previous years, it fully deserved the accolades for the varied programmes offered.

A lack of pre-conceptions and expectation proved to be a good thing. After all, the vast majority of Wednesday evening’s crowd had come to see and hear the legendary Irish flautist Sir James Galway. In his usual friendly and casual manner, the bespectacled, grey but still hirsute, soon-to-turn-70 superstar thrilled and tantalised in Mozart’s Second Flute Concerto in D major.

His pristine, golden tone remains an object of beauty, and the nimbleness in which he engaged his tricky and witty cadenzas a marvel that turned back the clock. Twenty minutes of aural bliss seemed all too short, but all was placated with two Irish encores, including one of his signature tunes, Londonderry Air or Danny Boy.

There were two further stars for Friday evening. Russian cellist Nina Kotova, worked the Asian premiere of American composer Christopher Theofanidis’ Cello Concerto (dedicated to her), with its Greek-Byzantine dance rhythms, from prayer-like contrition to fever pitch. Fifteen-year-old Chinese American pianist Conrad Tao then put his own unerring personal stamp on Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody, a totally impressive Singapore debut that can only be described as the most prodigious individual performance since the first coming of Lang Lang in 1997.

Supporting the fireworks were Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden and his excellent orchestra, hitherto somewhat of an unknown quantity, but had proved their mettle within minutes. Beethoven’s Second Symphony was treated to a lithe but not lightweight reading, one that rejoiced in the glow of youth but engaged in some serious fist shaking, prompted by deafness taking its toll.

Equally impressive were ten numbers from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. The orchestra reveled in its potent blend of strident dissonance and fluid lyricism, with the inherent violence of fatal love fully realised.

Still on Russian music, Tchaikovsky’s highly dramatic Fourth Symphony began on low voltage but soon gained momentum as the neuroses piled up. The wind soloists were excellent going into the slow movement’s lament and the central folk dance of the 3rd movement’s pizzicato polka. Then all caution was thrown into the wind that made for an exciting tempestuous finale.

The only Dutch music offered was Johann Wagenaar’s Cyrano de Bergerac Overture, modeled on the concert overtures of Berlioz but filled with the expressive devices of his better-known namesake Richard Wagner. Braying brass, svelte strings, and a surfeit of melody all made for an enjoyable performance.

The marquee event was surely the all-Italian opera gala evening on Saturday helmed by Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu. It was an unmitigated pleasure to finally find an artist at the height of her expressive powers, rather than some over-the-hill diva with unreasonable demands for the air-conditioning to be switched off. Sporting three changes of evening gowns, including a flaming red cleavage-revealing see-through outfit, the irrepressible Gheorghiu oozed charisma and sexuality from every pore.

Whether it was in solo arias or duets with her compatriot, the rising tenor Marius Manea, she commanded the stage with a clear-as-a-bell richness of tone and vivacious presence. The arias from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Un bel di) and Catalani’s Le Wally (Ebben! Ne andro lontana) were perfection itself. Not to be overshadowed, Manea hit his high notes in arias from Verdi’s Luisa Miller and Puccini’s La Boheme like a young and once-fit Pavarotti.

The couple elicited a rare chemistry in four duets, including less familiar gems from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore and Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz, all sensitively partnered by the orchestra now conducted by the Italian Paolo Olmi. Arguably the best operatic concert in almost two decades (and certainly this century thus far), it was capped with five substantial encores.

Like in Placido Domingo’s 1990 gig at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the audience was invited to sing the chorus in the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata. The response was less than coordinated clapping and a respectful silence. Judging by the high spirits and inspiration engendered, some souls may be led to take on singing lessons themselves. In the meantime, the operatic offering for next year’s Singapore Sun Festival cannot come soon enough.