PROFILE

Steinway Artist, Dr. Poom Prommachart is born in Thailand and now residing in Malaysia. Besides being an international pianist,  Dr. Poom is currently an Assistant Professor at the University College of Fairview in Malaysia, the Artistic Director of the Steinway Youth Piano Competition in Thailand and and an Elite Fellow of University Malaya’s Music Faculty.

Just recently in May 2023, he was awarded the Best Solo Performance Instrumental - Music by the BOH Cameronian 18th Arts Awards. An honour for a Thai pianist to win this in Malaysia. In 2022, Dr. Prommachart received the ‘Rector’s List of Honour for the Most Exceptional Graduates’ from the University of Montreal’s Doctor of Music programme, where he studied under Prof. Dang Thai Son and Prof. Jean Saulnier. He received his Bachelor of Music degree, Master of Music degree, and Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London (RCM) in 2014 on a full scholarship sponsored by H.R.H Princess Galyani Vadhana of Thailand and the RCM, under Prof. Yonty Solomon, Prof. Ian Jones, and later with Prof. Dina Parakhina. He obtained the most coveted Tagore Gold Medal during his time in London, which was handed to him by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, upon graduation. He also studied with Prof. Vladimir Tropp at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia.

The lyrical passion and virtuosity of Dr. Prommachart’s performances are highly regarded. After his performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor with the London Musician Symphony Orchestra in 2010, he was applauded by critics who referred to him as “a youthful Ashkenazy” in Seen and Heard UK Concert Review. Furthermore, the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times praised his performance, writing, “Still in his late twenties, Poom Prommachart is Thailand’s most accomplished and awarded pianist.”

Dr. Prommachart’s first solo debut CD, comprising compositions by Medtner, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff, was released in April 2015 by Champs Hill Records in the United Kingdom. In Europe, America, and Asia, this premiere got rave reviews. He has also recorded with Steinway Spirio in New York, as well as the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor with Maestro Jean- Francois Rivest and the Orchestre de l’Universite de Montreal.

Dr. Prommachart’s international performing career began in 2010, when he won the gold medal in Serbia’s Fifth Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition. In addition, he won the First Prize in the Thailand International Piano Competition in 2011, and extended his success in 2013 by earning the First Prize in the Sussex International Piano Competition. The notable orchestras he has recently worked with include Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, London Musician Symphony Orchestra, Timisoara Philharmonic Orchestra of Romania, National Symphony Orchestra of Serbia, Worthing Symphony Orchestra, Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, and Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. His recent major concert engagements included piano recitals at Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, Belgrade Kolarac Hall in Serbia, Seoul Arts Center in Seoul and Busan, South Korea, Esplanade Hall in Singapore, South Bank and Royal Albert Hall in the U.K., Music Festival Perugia in Italy and Suntory Hall in Japan. In 2020, Dr. Prommachart won first the grand prize at the Orford Music Award, Canada. RCM, under Prof. Yonty Solomon, Prof. Ian Jones, and later with Prof. Dina Parakhina. He obtained the most coveted Tagore Gold Medal during his time in London, which was handed to him by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, upon graduation. He also studied with Prof. Vladimir Tropp at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia.

 

In his recent performance of Chopin’s 24 Preludes in Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall in January 2023, Dr Chang Tou Liang reviewed Dr Poom’s performance as…
 

• “Never has a work by Chopin displayed more heterogeneity in mood, harmonies, texture and tempi, yet held so well with some kind of spiritual, spatial and temporal glue”. 

• "Chopin only performed selections or small groups of Preludes, and never all 24 at one sitting. It was Poom’s singular vision that made this long sequence work."

• "No performance of the Chopin Preludes has captivated this listener as much as this since the late-lamented Fou Tsong’s in the same hall in 1993, some thirty years ago."