The Oceanus Piano Trio: From Shared Passion to Award-Winning Harmony
- WOMCO
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
The Oceanus Piano Trio from Singapore, with pianist Hong Xiang, violinist Gabriel, and cellist Hong Tzin, received the Platinum Prize in the Chamber Music category at the 2025 Season 3 Couperin International Music Competition. The competition was held from May 6 to August 6, 2025, with results announced on August 27. Their award-winning performance featured Gabriel Fauré’s Trio in D minor, Op. 120 for piano, violin, and cello.
When and why did you form your trio, and does playing music together hold a special meaning for you?
The Oceanus Piano Trio:
"Before we formed the trio, Hong Xiang (our pianist) and Gabriel (our violinist) were already familiar with each other as they had made an acquaintance as children and also later on served together in the Singapore Armed Forces as musicians playing for military events.
When Gabriel moved back to Singapore from London sometime during the Covid lockdown period, he reconnected with Hong Xiang who then roped in his brother, Hong Tzin (our cellist), and we formed the Oceanus Trio. The trio was formed simply because we missed doing chamber music and felt that performing and working together was a worthwhile and meaningful endeavour.“
Could you share the background of your award-winning performance of Faure Trio? When and where did you record it, and what led you to choose this piece for your performance?
The Oceanus Piano Trio:
"We recorded the trio in Singapore’s premier concert hall: the Esplanade. It was done for a concert titled "From France with Franz" in June 2025. The first half of the program was all Faure and the second half consisted of Schubert’s Trio in B-flat.
Our violinist, Gabriel was the one that selected the Faure trio in D minor as he found the first movement strangely interesting yet attractive. That being said, putting it together was actually quite intuitive and the more we rehearsed, the more we enjoyed its lyrical expressiveness and unique harmonies. Gabriel describes Faure’s Trio as, “marvellously serene in first movement, contemplative yet passionate in the second movement, and turbulent, jazzy and quirky in the last movement.”
Could you walk us through your approach as a trio in preparing and interpreting your award-winning video performance? How did you collaborate and coordinate as a team, and what artistic or technical considerations etc.?
We invested quite a significant amount of time into rehearsals as the cohesiveness of chamber music interpretation is a process that cannot be rushed. Over the course of six months we rehearsed on a weekly basis (2-3 hour sessions each time) working on Faure’s Piano Trio and also Schubert’s Piano Trio no.1 in B-flat.
Additionally, as friends, we are really comfortable with each other, so we did not hesitate to speak out or discuss challenges during rehearsals, allowing us to figure out musical problems expediently and effectively."
Would you like to share your experience participating in our competition or anyone you’d like to thank?
The Oceanus Piano Trio:
"We’d like to thank our pianist, Hong Xiang, for coordinating our recording and concert as renting the Esplanade was quite a challenge in the amount of administrative work required. We’d also like to thank our audio engineer, Mr Chan, for his patience and accommodating and advising us throughout the recording process."
Biography
The Oceanus Trio was formed in 2023. They debuted in 2024 at Bechstein’s recital studio playing Beethoven’s piano trio in C-minor, Op.1, no.3, alongside other pieces in the key of C in their show titled “Concert in C”. Subsequently in 2025, they performed at Singapore’s premier performing arts centre, the Esplanade’s recital studio in their show “From France with Franz”, presenting Schubert’s Piano Trio no.1, and Faure’s Piano Trio. Their pianist, Hong Xiang, is to blame for their cheeky concert titles due to his penchant for alliteration. As a trio, they have won awards at competitions such as the First Prize in the Medici international competition and the Platinum Prize in the Couperin International music competition.