pianomania: BEHIND THE BENCH AT THE SINGAPORE STEINWAY YOUTH PIANO COMPETITION 2022

BEHIND THE BENCH AT THE

SINGAPORE STEINWAY

YOUTH PIANO COMPETITION 2022

I do not regularly get invited to judge in local music competitions. A couple of concours which I remember included a two-piano competition organised by Victoria Junior College and a Ministry of Health Primary Care Division karaoke contest involving a bevy of middle-aged singing staff nurses and aides. That was a long, long time ago. It was thus a rare privilege to be asked to sit on the jury of the semi-finals in the Amateur Class of this year’s Steinway Youth Piano Competition.

A gecko's eye view of the
production studio set-up by Steinway.

The whole-day event which ran from 9 to 7 on Sunday (29 May 2022) at the Steinway Production Studio (Jalan Peminpin) was a highly professional affair, involving multiple film and recording engineers, production crew, digital wizards, scores of performers (and their parents) and a panel of jurors. The proceedings were live-streamed to online viewers at the Steinway Gallery facebook page, where they got a chance to vote for which pianists they liked best.

Some forty-two pianists performed, subdivided into five age categories, beginning with the Young-At-Heart group which corresponded to the above 35s, the cut-off point for most adult amateur competitions. The three ladies of that group had obviously put in a lot of work in mastering works like Chopin’s Nocturnes, Rachmaninov’s Preludes to Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse. One even had the pluck to even attempt Liszt’s Mazeppa! They were uniformly excellent, and would get an instant invite to any soiree I frequent.

The children were all attired to impress, with fluffy dress gowns for girls to spiffy three-piece suits for boys, and they were mostly musically impressive too. Kudos go for the preliminary vetting team of music teachers for pre-selecting them for this jury. Everyone performed from memory, and not a single pianist had a memory lapse, which was a miracle. The repertoire ranged from the usual children’s pieces, sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, through a full gamut of Romantic repertoire. Interestingly, some of the best performances were of twentieth-century Russian and Soviet music, works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Maykapar and Kabalevsky.

The jurors catch a quick bento lunch.

Juror Iryna Vokhmyanina says hello!

What were the jurors’ duties? To listen with a keen ear, record marks upon 100 (40% for technique, and 60% for interpretation and musicality) and provide comments on each performed piece onto a nifty computer software which totted up the aggregate results from all five jurors. From these, 23 players would be advanced to the finals held on 19 June 2022.

Was the entire process of judging an arduous one? Surprisingly not, as the performing slots were well spaced out, about three to four within the space of an hour, thus preventing the wall-to-wall blocs of sound that are all too common, even among international piano competitions and festivals. And there was time to spare, for players and jurors to do interviews, mingle and rehydrate. Running the show like a seasoned television host was a most amiable master of ceremonies in Tiffany Leu (below), who is also a Steinway-affiliated piano teacher. She obviously knew what she is talking about!

Tiffany Leu is the public face of the
Singapore Steinway Youth Piano Competition.

Juror Clarence Lee prepares to be interviewed.

My 15 minutes of fame.
Actually its closer to about 2 minutes.

I admit to having a smashing good time. The hours passed ever so quickly, and every performance had something to recommend. That became even more special when special talents were revealed, and my memory goes back to the twelve-hour long SSO Piano Marathon of 1998. If these wonderful young people represented the Amateur Class, one shudders to think what the Professional Class delivered the day before.

A dramatic close to Prokofiev's Third Sonata
by Olivier Lim Hao Yu.

Ultimately, it was music that won the day. Talented young people, well-tutored by dedicated teachers, nurtured by loving and supportive parents, a glamourous platform to display their skills, all topped with the opportunity to perform on a Steinway grand piano. Isn’t this the ultimate dream of every piano-loving young person?