Classical Expressions 2019: Alessio Bax

Italian born pianist Alessio Bax plays at Expressions Whirinaki during his first visit to New Zealand. Bax has performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, England's International Piano Series and Aldeburgh and Bath festivals, the Risør Festival in Norway, and the Moritzburg Festival, Ruhr Klavier-Festival, and Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany among others.

He has given recitals at New York's Lincoln Centre and other major music halls around the world including those of Rome, Milan, Bilbao, Madrid, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Washington DC. Alession Bax graduated with top honours 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 Joaquin Achúcarro.

In 1994 he moved to Dallas to continue his studies with Achúcarro at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, where, with Lucille Chung, he is now the Johnson-Prothro Artist-in-Residence. He joins us as part of an Australian tour which includes performances with the Melbourne Symphony and Sydney Symphony and brings an Italian themed programme, including Marcello, Liszt and Bach.

- Alessandro Marcello: Oboe Concerto in D minor, S D935 (arr. JS Bach, BWV 974)
- Sergei Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, op. 42
- Luigi Dallapiccola: Quaderno musicale di Annalibera
- Franz Liszt: St. François d'Assise: La prédiction aux oiseaux, S. 175/1;
- Franz Liszt: Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata, S. 161