National Piano & Violin Competition 2021 to be livestreamed from 27 November

UPDATE: 27 November 2021 – From 28 November, we will be streaming the competition on the Singapore Symphony and Singapore National Youth Orchestra YouTube channels. Please refer to the schedule here.

UPDATE: 26 November 2021 – SSO Conductor Laureate Lan Shui will replace Christopher Park in the NPVC piano adjudicating panel due to unforeseen circumstances. The revised list of judges are as follows: Anna Tsybuleva, Ewa Kupiec and Lan Shui for piano; Denis Goldfeld, Eszter Haffner and Joshua Tan for violin.

Singapore, 17 November 2021 — For the first time, Singapore’s oldest and most prestigious music competition will be made available to audiences online. Taking place from 27 November to 5 December, National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) rounds will spread across 24 sessions from four categories for piano and violin, performed live from Victoria Concert Hall and the Esplanade.

To safeguard all participants involved in the competition, the organisers have implemented measures to minimise the spread of COVID-19, in consideration of the number of sessions and competitors involved. While there will be no audience present during the competition, music enthusiasts can look forward to following the action online. All sessions, from the quarter-finals to the finals, will be free to view and available to the public via NPVC’s Facebook and Singapore Symphony’s Youtube, as part of Singapore Symphony Group (SSG)’s efforts to step up digital access to music events during the pandemic.

Established by the National Arts Council in 1997 as a platform for music excellence, the biennial event celebrates its 13th edition this year. Organised by the SSG since 2017, the NPVC continues to provide a platform for young musicians to showcase their performing skills and musicality, a fundamental part of the Group’s mission to nurture talent and spread the love for music.

The public can look forward to quality performances by young pianists and violinists. Over 250 applications were received, with 81 competitors expected to take the stage for a chance to win First Prize in each of the categories, namely Junior (11 years and below), Intermediate (15 years and below), Senior (21 years and below) and Artist (25 years and below). The top three winners in each category will stand to receive trophies, certificates and cash prizes.

Past winners of the competition include violinist Chloe Chua, who has gone on to win joint First Prize at the Junior category of the prestigious Menuhin Competition in 2018, and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras and ensembles like the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Resound Collective, Kammerorchester Basel and China Philharmonic Orchestra. Rising star Samuel Tan, who received prizes at NPVC in 2013 and 2015, has since performed alongside professionals internationally, including a chamber concert with musicians of the SSO, as well as with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra in the lead up to the Concours musical international de Montréal 2019.

This year, competitors will have the opportunity to perform before world-class musicians on the panel of judges, including Anna Tsybuleva, Christopher Park, and Ewa Kupiec for piano, and Denis Goldfeld, Eszter Haffner, and Joshua Tan for violin.

The competition takes place from 27 November to 5 December 2021, viewable from NPVC’s Facebook and Singapore Symphony’s Youtube. Prize winners’ performances in the Final Rounds will be showcased online after the conclusion of the competition on 29 December, 8pm on NPVC and SSO's Facebook pages.

For more details, please visit www.sso.org.sg/npvc.