Debut Recital – Dark Stories

The youngest prize winner at the 2018 Singapore Steinway Youth Piano Competition when she was just 11, Jessie M gives her debut solo recital on March 2024 with a demanding programme of virtuosic and seldom heard works.

The renowned Liszt pianist, Leslie Howard, said this after a masterclass with Jessie: “She is a very gifted young pianist, intelligent, sensitive, and mature, with a thoroughly grounded technique.”

Aptly titled Dark Stories, expect to be left breathless with Liszt’s daunting Mazeppa and Wilde Jagd and Ravel’s treacherously difficult homage to the Viennese waltz. La Valse. Or look forward to be enchanted with poignant and Russian infused Romanticism of Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne for the Left Hand and of Glinka-Balakirev’s The Lark, one of Jessie’s signature pieces which some audiences associate her with. A key highlight is William Bolcom’s audacious The Serpent’s Kiss that showcases unconventional techniques like heel stomps, piano taps, and tongue clicks.

Since the age of 6, Jessie has been no stranger to the competition scene. As Grand Prize Winner of the 2018 Steinway Youth Piano Competition, she represented Singapore in the Steinway Regional Finals Asia Pacific that same year. She has also taken first prizes in the categories she competed in at the 2017 and 2021 editions of the National Piano & Violin Competition, won top awards in several editions of the UCSI International Piano Festival & Competition and most recently was a prize winner at the 2023 Lang Lang Futian International Piano Competition. Jessie has performed in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Paris Opera Bastille.