Seems like just a short time ago that I was asked by Mr. and Mrs. Fong to judge the local Piano Idol competition last year. Now it’s Season 2 time, and I was at the local Yamaha venue together with my fellow judges, Razif and Leonard. This year’s Piano Idol had fewer participants compared with last year’s, but this works in their favor doesn’t it. It lasted for about 3 hours and as usual was divided up into Junior, Senior, and Freestyle Group categories. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Fong who kept us supplied with coffee, cheese cake, and mineral water.
Unfortunately I have to get one criticism out of the way first. Regrettably, many of the contestants were let down by poor song choices. It’s so important to remember that this is a competition, and not a recital or concert. And oh dear here comes Richard Clayderman again! As I’ve said before I have nothing against the man or his songs, but they are more for easy listening and not for competitions such as this one.
The standouts were again contestants who chose to play classical repertoire. Adriana Chiew gave a very professional and poised performance of the Brahms A major Intermezzo op. 118, while Benjamin Pau gave his version of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu, which, although had some blemishes, did display some maturing talent in his playing. Jason Ong (a participant from last year) played his own arrangement of his favorite videogame, titled Bloody Tears. Not only that, he provided the judges with a short verbal and written description of the storyline.
The Freestyle Group category had students who played in ensembles. This year what impressed me most were those students who chose to perform piano duets (other groups featured the Yamaha Stagea organs and Clavinovas) Although they were quite young, the students who performed piano duets displayed a very good sense of accuracy and synchronization with each other. I’m also not too keen (but this is my personal opinion) of ensembles where some parts were already pre-recorded onto thumb drives and then inserted into the Stagea organs. When I judge ensembles I like to see and hear as much LIVE playing as possible.
The Finals will be on September 13 at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel here. I’ll look forward to that—it’s always nice to see students giving so much time and energy to an event such as this. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to pick the right song. Read my post here to get more useful advice. Good luck, contestants!
Tags: piano, piano idol
Coffee AND Cheese Cake? OMG sounds like heaven!!
It was, LOL!
Check out this link. It’s the Piano Idol competition 2008.
Thanks for that link, Poh Lin. That’s Tan Jin Yin in action (she won!)
ha ha. Thanks. Didn’t know that the video will come out in the Google search.
wow! Time flies! Piano Idol is in season two already! And wow!! More great judges! Is Mr Razif from USM?
Hey, thanks for commenting, Jin Yin. Yes, Mr. Razif is from USM here. He plays some mean saxophone too. Hope to see you during the finals of Piano Idol next month. Do sign my Guestbook when you have time.