Pianist Alessio Bax joins 21C Media Group roster
21C Media Group is proud to announce that it now represents pianist Alessio Bax, handling his media and public relations. Gramophone magazine described Bax as “wondrously gifted” and “ardent and dazzling” in its review of his most recent recording, Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies. A 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Bax is first prize winner of two international piano competitions, the Hamamatsu in Japan, and the Leeds, whose laureates include Andras Schiff, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia and Mitsuko Uchida.
“Since winning the prestigious Leeds Competition in 2000, Bax has matured into one of the most compelling pianists around,” said the Dallas Morning News last July. “There’s dazzling virtuosity where called for, but more impressive is his way of shaping the music, warmly caressing phrases.”
Bax returned to the Dallas Symphony this past fall as soloist under music director Jaap van Zweden. He also appears this season with orchestras in London, Bilbao, Castilla y León and Seoul, and performs recitals in Iceland, Cyprus, Rome, Taipei, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, France and Spain. The young pianist participates on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center where he is in his third year as a member of CMS Two; collaborates with violinist Karen Gomyo in Toronto, and cellist Sol Gabetta at the Kennedy Center; and tours Canada with his wife and frequent duo partner, pianist Lucille Chung.
With a rigorous schedule of engagements around the world, Bax rivals George Clooney’s character in the movie Up In The Air for elite status as an executive platinum “2-million-miler” level frequent flier on American Airlines. He launched the New Year at the Seoul Arts Center performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, traveled to the border of Wales to record an all-Brahms CD for Signum Classics, and then to Germany for a week of chamber music. He returns to New York City to play Mendelssohn with cellist Steven Isserlis and violinist Stefan Jackiw for his debut at the 92nd Street Y on January 15th before flying to Spain to perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. At the end of January, the indefatigable pianist appears as soloist with the Southbank Sinfonia in London and Richmond in Mozart’s Concerto in C minor, K. 491.
To date Bax has performed with over 90 orchestras worldwide, including the London and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Dallas and Houston symphonies, NHK Symphony in Japan and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle. Among his festival appearances are London’s International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Switzerland’s Verbier, England’s Aldeburgh and Bath festivals, USA’s Music@Menlo and Bard SummerScape, and the Ruhr Klavier-Festival, Beethovenfest, and Schloss Elmau in Germany.
The New York Times called Alessio Bax a musician “worth getting excited about” in its review of his New York debut recital at the Metropolitan Museum in 2010. Time Out New York wrote, “Bax ravages the keyboard, remolding the ivories into sonic sculptures that light up an auditorium.” He returned to Music@Menlo last summer for a second “Carte Blanche” recital after which the San Francisco Examiner enthused, “With an electrifying technique, the 33-year-old Italian pianist rose to the occasion and delivered riveting performances of Brahms, Enescu and Bartok… It was a wonderful musical event, one which left many audience members shaking their heads in astonishment.”
As a recording artist, Bax has earned across-the-board praise from the international music magazines for each of his solo albums. Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (Signum Classics) just snared a “Critics’ Choice 2011” from American Record Guide. Classic FM Magazine said Bax has “technique to burn but also has the unteachable ability to tug at the heart strings … This is one of the most intelligent and engrossing Rachmaninov recitals of recent years.” Audiophile Audition predicted that “his traversal of the Op. 23 Preludes seems likely to become a classic rendition,” and Gramophone warned, “You would have to have a heart of stone not to be beguiled by Bax’s romantic warmth … I can scarcely wait to hear this ardent and dazzling young pianist in the Op. 32 Preludes, the Etudes-tableaux, Moments musicaux and much else besides.”
Gramophone awarded an “Editor’s Choice” to Bax’s first solo disc, Baroque Reflections (Warner Classics), stating, “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity.” The album also received American Record Guide’s “Critics’ Choice.” Gramophone called Bax’s 2009 recording for Signum Classics, Bach Transcribed, “an unmissable disc of transcriptions,” and Fanfare emphasized, “This disc is a must.”
Classical radio stations here and abroad program Bax’s discs regularly. He recently performed Beethoven’s “Pathetique” and Op. 110 live on WQXR during the station’s highly publicized Beethoven Awareness Month marathon of the complete piano sonatas at the Jerome L. Greene Space. Two hours later the inveterate traveler was on a flight from JFK to Europe for a concert the next day in Paris.
Bax can be heard playing Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass. The documentary has been broadcast worldwide, and is available as a DVD box set on the EMI label.
Alessio Bax graduated at age 14 with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, Italy, his hometown. After further studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994 to continue with Joaquín Achúcarro at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas where he is now on the teaching faculty. A Steinway artist, he resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung.
“I’m awfully glad to have met Alessio, and I can’t wait to hear what he’ll bring to the music he plays in the future,” wrote Performance Today host Fred Child last November in The Poetry and Power of Pianist Alessio Bax, for his Favorite Sessions blog post on NPR Music. Read more and listen here.
[http://www.npr.org/2011/11/09/142174929/the-poetry-and-power-of-pianist-alessio-bax]
For the past two seasons Bax has been one of the musicians represented in 21C Media Group’s “Artists To Watch” imaging and profile-building program.
Alessio Bax: upcoming engagements
Jan 13
Schloss Elmau, Germany
Schloss Elmau Chamber Music Week w/Alina Ibragimova, violin
Jan 15
New York, NY
92nd Street Y debut
Mendelssohn w/Steven Isserlis & Stefan Jackiw
Jan 19-21
Valladolid & León, Spain
Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León w/Alejandro Posada
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
Jan 26
London, UK
Southbank Sinfonia w/Simon Over
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
+ Jan 28: Richmond, UK
Feb 5-16
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Tour
“Winds of France” – Emmanuel & Poulenc
w/Tara Helen O’Connor, Stephen Taylor, David Shifrin, Peter Kolkay & William Purvis
Feb 5-6: Calgary; Pro Musica
Feb 7: Vancouver; Friends of Chamber Music
Feb 12: Menlo Park, CA; Music@ Menlo
Feb 14: New Haven, CT; Yale University
Feb 15-16: Kennesaw State University, GA: concert & master class
Feb 11
Washington, DC
Kennedy Center – Washington Performing Arts Society
Schumann, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn & Servais w/Sol Gabetta
Feb 18
Lexington, KY
Chamber Music Festival of Lexington
Gala w/Lucille Chung
Feb 22-24
Dallas, TX
Maultsby Recital Series
Private concerts
Feb 26
Beacon, NY
Howland Chamber Music Circle – Howland Cultural Center
Recital: Rachmaninov, Liszt
March 2-7
Canadian Tour w/Lucille Chung
March 2-4: Whitehorse, Yukon: recitals & master class
March 6: Trail, BC
March 7: Nakusp, BC
March 19
New York, NY
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players
Two concerts w/Philippe Quint, Eric Kim & Lucille Chung
March 24
Lindsay, ON
Recital w/Karen Gomyo
March 25
Toronto, ON; Royal Conservatory
Recital w/Karen Gomyo
March 31
Madison, NJ
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Drew University
Glazunov & Rachmaninov w/Elmar Oliveira, Erin Keefe & Paul Watkins
April 1
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall
Glazunov & Rachmaninov w/Elmar Oliveira, Erin Keefe & Paul Watkins
April 12-25
Verbier Festival Cruise on the MS Europa
Recitals & chamber music w/Lucille Chung, Sayaka Shoji, David Aaron Carpenter & Adrian Brendel
April 27-29
Canadian Debut Atlantic Encore Tour w/Lucille Chung
April 27: Moncton, NB
April 28: St. John, NB
April 29: Dartmouth, NS
May 2
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Gala
Rachmaninov Suite No. 2 for two pianos w/Inon Barnatan
May 4-5
Lindsay, ON
Lindsay Concert Foundation
Master class; concert w/Lucille Chung
May 6
Halliburton, ON
Recital w/Lucille Chung
May 11-12
San Diego, CA
Mainly Mozart Festival
w/Lucille Chung
May 20
Dallas, TX
Meyerson Symphony Center
Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra/Richard Giangiulio
Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1
May 31 & June 1
Bilbao, Spain
Bilbao Symphony Orchestra/Gunter Neuhold
Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos w/Lucille Chung
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