- Second Prize, Open Category Combined Age 17 and Below & Age 18 and Above Division,
Malaysian Piano Competition 2018
Chyh Leng Low is a Malaysian pianist, educator, and composer/arranger whose multifaceted career spans performance, pedagogy, and research. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature at James Madison University under the tutelage of Dr. Gabriel Dobner.
Her foundational training was established in Malaysia, where she earned a Bachelor of Music from UCSI University under the tutelage of Mr. Bang Hean Loo. She then completed a Master of Music in Piano Performance at Miami University, Ohio, supported by a graduate assistantship and scholarship under the guidance of Dr. Siok Lian Tan.
As a performer, Low has been recognized with several international prizes, including first prize in the Indonesia International Youth Piano Competition (2021) and second prize in the Southeast Asia Piano Competition (2021). Besides, she has actively participated in festivals and conferences, including American Liszt Society Festival and Conference 2025 in Tennessee, Vivace International Music Festival 2023 in North Carolina, and Jinyue Furong International Music Festival 2023 in China.
Her artistic curiosity extends to creative arranging, exemplified by her innovative chamber music adaptation of Prokofiev’s early piano works for mallet percussion and piano. In this project, she meticulously reimagined the composer’s intricate textures and percussive piano writing for an ensemble of glockenspiel, marimba, and vibraphone. This arrangement not only highlights the innate rhythmic vitality of Prokofiev’s music but also explores new timbral possibilities, creating a fresh dialogue between the keyboard and mallet percussion families that is both pedagogically insightful and artistically compelling.
This deep engagement with Prokofiev’s music also forms the core of her scholarly work. In September 2025, she presented her research, “Rethinking Prokofiev’s Early Piano Works: A Pedagogical Bridge to Modernist Repertoire,” at The 4th UCSI Piano Pedagogy Conference. She encourages piano teachers to explore Prokofiev’s early piano works as a bridge not only to his later piano works but also to other modernist repertoire. This reflects Low’s dedication to building connections between teaching methodologies and diversifying the canon. Her commitment to education is further demonstrated through her experience as a class piano instructor at both Miami University and James Madison University. She integrated her arranging skills into her class piano teaching materials. As a composer, her works include the one-act opera Kiyoko, premiered in a 2020 workshop with Kuala Lumpur City Opera. Low synthesizes her diverse activities in performance, teaching, and research into a cohesive artistic and academic profile.
You must be logged in to post a comment.