Alessio bax piano biography of martin

by Mike Telin

Whether it’s a sports team or a chamber music ensemble, it’s all about assembling the perfect combination of people who together can achieve the highest performance standards. “This is a dream team,” pianist Alessio Bax said of his Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center colleagues during a recent telephone conversation. “I’ve worked with each of them separately on many occasions, but to have them all together for these concerts is amazing. They are all fantastic musicians, great people, and we all like each other, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

On Tuesday, January 17 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, Bax will be joined by violinist  Ani Kavafian, violist Yura Lee, and cellist Paul Watkins for a Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert that will feature piano quartets by Brahms and Fauré.

A first prize winner at the 2000 Leeds International Piano Competition as well as a former member of CMS Two, Alessio Bax was the recipient of both Lincoln Center’s 2013 Martin E. Segal Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Italian-born pianist said that he is honored to be part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS). “It’s like home to me.”

Bax also looks forward to playing in Cleveland for the first time, especially with this program. “It’s beautiful, and I’m very excited,” the pianist said. “CMS organizes over one hundred concerts a year, and they always ask for program suggestions. I’m not sure what role this played, but I have suggested both the Fauré and Brahms quartets in the past, and they came together on this program.”

Tuesday’s concert will open with Brahms’s “Scherzo in c” from the F.A.E.Sonata for Violin and Piano, WoO2, a four-movement collaborative work between Brahms, Schumann, and Schumann’s pupil, Albert Dietrich. The piece was dedicated to the violinist Joseph Joachim, who had adopted the motto, Frei aber einsam — hence F.A.E. “This is a favorit

Musical artist

Alessio Bax (born 30 November 1977 in Bari, Italy) is an Italian classical pianist. He graduated from the Bari conservatory at the record age of 14. He won the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan at age 19 and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 2000 after first participating in 1993. Bax was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two for three seasons, beginning in 2009. He also received the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009. He studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas with Basque pianist Joaquín Achúcarro. Bax is a Steinway Artist. He also serves since 2019 on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music as a professor of piano.

Career highlights

Bax has appeared as the soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Bax has collaborated with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Hannu Lintu, Ruth Reinhardt, Yuri Temirkanov, Jaap van Zweden and Sir Simon Rattle. As a chamber music performer, Bax has performed with musicians such as Emmanuel Pahud, Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Daishin Kashimoto, Lawrence Power, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Paul Watkins, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, and the Emerson String Quartet

Bax has given recitals at major venues in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Toky

Bax’s celebrated discography for Signum Classics includes Beethoven’s 'Hammerklavier' and 'Moonlight' Sonatas (a Gramophone 'Editor’s Choice' and one of the magazine’s 'Top Ten recent Beethoven recordings'); Bax & Chung, a duo disc with Lucille Chung, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of the ballet Pétrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, comprising Piano Concertos K491 and K595 with London’s Southbank Sinfonia led by Simon Over; Alessio Bax plays Brahms (Gramophone 'Critic’s Choice' and Pianist 'Editor’s Choice'); Rachmaninov's Preludes and Melodies (American Record Guide 'Critics’ Choice 2011'); and Bach Transcribed; and for Warner Classics, Baroque Reflections (Gramophone 'Editor’s Choice').

He performed Beethoven’s 'Hammerklavier' Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available as a DVD box set on the EMI label. His performances have been broadcast live on the BBC (UK); CBC (Canada); RAI (Italy); RTVE (Spain); NHK (Japan); WDR, NDR, and Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany); American Public Media’s 'Performance Today'; WQXR (New York); WGBH (B

Guest Artist

Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” (Gramophone) with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions—and a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient—he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including the London and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Dallas and Houston symphonies, the NHK Symphony in Japan, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle.

After a summer residency debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bax launched the 2014-15 season with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, playing two Mozart piano concertos for the society’s opening-night gala. October brings the release of his next solo album for Signum Classics, an all-Beethoven program featuring the “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas. Upcoming orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with London’s Royal Philharmonic on a U.K. tour, as well as appearances with orchestras in Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. With violinist Joshua Bell, Bax embarks on three extensive tours of Europe and the United States, crowned by dates at London’s Wigmore Hall and L.A.’s Disney Hall.

Among recent highlights are Rachmaninov and Mozart with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov, Barber with the Dallas Symphony under Jaap van Zweden, Mozart with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Hans Graf, and debuts at Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and 92nd Street Y, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Besides giving solo recitals last season at Lincoln Center, in Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tokyo, Bax pa