Eleven-year-old Jessie Meng Yi Rui Xue, emerged as the grand prize winner of 4th Steinway Youth Piano Competition (SYPC) this evening. Jessie is the youngest grand prize winner of the competition since its inaugural event in 2012. She topped eight other finalists aged between 9 and 16 years old at the competition which was held at School of The Arts Concert Hall. Jessie will represent Singapore at the Regional Finals of the competition in Taiwan.
Says Jessie, the grand prize winner, “I am honoured for this opportunity to represent Singapore at the Regional Finals in Taiwan and I am grateful to my parents and piano teacher for their support and encouragement throughout this competition. I will do my best at the Regional Finals and make Singapore proud.”
Jessie has been studying the piano since she was four and aspires to be a concert pianist.
The Grand Finals of the SYPC comprised three categories – Category 1: Age 11 and below, Category 2: Age 12 to 14 and Category 3: Age 15 to 17, of which Jessie Meng Yi Rui Xue (11), Tang Zhi Feng Adrian (13) and Zhang Yifan Jem (16) emerged as winners of each respective category. The runner ups from each category are Joshuanne Yeh Su En (9) and Lim Hao Yu Olivier (10) from Category 1, Yu Jingwen (12) and Xu Ruojin (12) from Category 2, Lim Shi Han (15) and Daniel Loo Kang Le (15) from Category 3.
The Grand Finals was adjudicated by internationally renowned pianists and pedagogues, Murray McLachlan from the United Kingdom, Noriko Ogawa from Japan and Tang Zhe from China. Both Tang and Ogawa are Steinway Artists.
Adds Ms Celine Goh, General Manager of Steinway Gallery Singapore, “On behalf of Steinway Gallery Singapore, we are very excited to have Jessie represent the nation at the Regional Finals in Taiwan later this year. Jessie will probably be the youngest participant to compete in the Regional Finals and she brought out the different techniques and textures of the pieces very well. I would also like to congratulate the winners from each category who have dedicated their time and efforts to prepare for the Grand Finals this evening.”
The SYPC is an important biennial event organized by Steinway & Sons to identify, encourage, and promote young pianists in the formative stages of their careers. The winner will represent Singapore in the regional round, joining seven other finalists from Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand who will compete to represent these Southeast Asian nations in the International Steinway Festival in Hamburg, Germany in September this year.
Says Steinway Artist Ms Noriko Ogawa, who was an adjudicator at the Grand Finals, at her closing remarks: “We had a wonderful afternoon. Each of the pianists had wonderful facility and sense of style in each of the pieces he or she played. We were impressed by everyone individually. The standard was exceptionally high. They knew how to handle the big Steinway concert grand and all of them will go on to become very talented pianists.”
