Meet Alessio Bax

Pacific Symphony has postponed the “Cathedrals of Sound” program, which was to have featured Pacific Chorale prominently. Because vocalists are unable to rehearse and perform wearing masks, the concert has been rescheduled to next season. In its place, Carl St.Clair will conduct a program entitled “Beethoven and Rachmaninoff” (Feb. 17-19), which features Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with Italian pianist Alessio Bax as soloist. He will be making his Pacific Symphony debut at these concerts. Read more about this remarkable artist.

Alessio Bax combines exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique. He is without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and is now a familiar face on five continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, including the London, Royal and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Dallas, Sydney and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras and the NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov and Jaap van Zweden.

Bax recently made a debut with the Milwaukee Symphony, where he performed Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto under Han-Na Chang, and the same composer’s Fourth Concerto and Choral Fantasy took him to the Santa Barbara Symphony. Placing special focus on long-term collaborative projects, Bax undertook Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS).

Bax is a staple on the international summer festival circuit, and has performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; the Aldeburgh Festival, Bath Festival, and Southbank Centre’s International Piano Series in England; the Risør Festival in Norway; the Salon-de- Provence Festival in France; the Moritzburg Festival, Ruhr Klavier-Festival, and Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany; and Le Pont International Music Festival in Japan. In the U.S., he makes regular appearances at Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and New York’s Bard Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Bax has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Ian Bostridge, Lucille Chung, Sol Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Jörg Widmann and the Emerson String Quartet, among many others.

Alessio Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, where his teacher was Angela Montemurro. He studied in France with Francois-Joël Thiollier and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas to continue his studies with Achúcarro at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. In fall 2019, Bax joined the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory. A Steinway Artist, he lives in New York City with Lucille Chung and their five-year-old daughter, Mila.