Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” says Gramophone magazine, leading to whatDallas Morning News calls “an out-of-body experience.”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 whirlwind summer playing fourteen festivals on three continents, including his Minnesota Orchestra debut under Andrew Litton and return to Bravo! Vail with the Dallas Symphony led by Jaap van Zweden, Bax opens the Colorado Symphony’s 2015-16 season, and launches a South American recital tour, crowned by three concerts at the famed Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. With violinist Joshua Bell, he embarks on a tour of Asia, collaborates for the first time with the Emerson String Quartet, plays four-hand piano concerts with Lucille Chung in Canada, and returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for engagements in New York and on tour. Among his solo recitals, Bax performs in the Cliburn Concerts series in Ft. Worth. September brings the release of his next solo album for Signum Classics, featuring music by Mussorgsky and Scriabin.

Highlights of recent seasons include Beethoven and Rachmaninov in a UK tour with the Royal Philharmonic, 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, Rachmaninov with London’s Southbank Sinfonia led by Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Mozart with the same orchestra under Simon Over, as well as concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall, L.A.’s Disney Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. He opened – with a pair of Mozart piano concertos – and closed the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2014-15 season. Besides giving solo recitals at the Lincoln Center and in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Minneapolis, Bilbao, and Tokyo, Bax partnered with Joshua Bell for over thirty concerts in Europe and North and South America, and with Lucille Chung in the U.S., Canada, France, and Hong Kong.In 2013, he received the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, which recognizes young artists of exceptional accomplishment.

Bax’s celebrated discography for Signum Classics includes Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas (Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”); 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 K. 491 and K. 595 with London’s Southbank Sinfonia led by Simon Over; Alessio Bax plays Brahms(Gramophone “Critic’s Choice”); Rachmaninov: 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 documentaryBarenboim 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 (Boston); WETA (Washington, DC); and Sirius-XM satellite radio, among many others.

Hailed by International Piano as “a pianist of refreshing depth,” Bax’s extensive concerto repertoire has led to performances with such esteemed conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop, Sergiu Commisiona, Vernon Handley, Pietari Inkinen, Hannu Lintu, Andrew Litton, Jonathan Nott, Vasily Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden. His international festival appearances include London’s International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall); the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; England’s Aldeburgh and Bath festivals; and the Ruhr Klavier-Festival and Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany. He has also appeared multiple times at such U.S. festivals as Bravo! Vail, Bard Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Music@Menlo, and has given recitals in major music halls around the world, including in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington, DC. An accomplished chamber musician, Bax has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Sol Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Phan, Paul Watkins, and Jörg Widmann, among others.

Alessio Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of his hometown in Bari, 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 SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, and he is now on the teaching faculty there. A Steinway artist, Bax resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, and their daughter.