My City February 2022

MYMUSIC

AlessioBax PIANIST

COMPILED BY SHERRON BARDEN

On February 12, the Flint Symphony Orchestra will continue the 2021-2022 season’s Classical Concert Series, “RENEW- AL ‘e Timeless Healing Power of Music Inspired by Nature.”‘e FSO and Maestro Enrique Diemecke will be joined by multi-award-winning Steinway Artist, Alessio Bax. At the record age of 14, Alessio Bax graduated with top honors from the Niccolò Piccinni Conservato- ry in his hometown of Bari, Italy where his teacher was Angela Mon- temurro. He studied in France with Francois-Joël ‘iollier and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena, Italy under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994, Bax moved to Dallas, TX to continue his studies with Achú- carro at Southern Methodist Univer- sity’s Meadows School of the Arts. In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and four years later, received both the AndrewWolf Chamber Music Award and Lincoln Center’s 2013 Martin E. Segal

Award for Emerging Artists. In fall 2019, Bax joined the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory. Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate tech- nique, Bax catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the Bax is said to be without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public.” GRAMOPHONE Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and is now a fa- miliar face on †ve continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 100 orches- tras, including the London, Royal and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Or- chestras; the Boston, Dallas, Sydney and City of Birmingham Symphony

Orchestras; and the NHK Sym- phony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir An- drew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden. Recent performance seasons have seen Bax make his solo recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, which aired live on BBC Radio 3, and give concerts at L.A.’s Disney Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Cen- ter and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Beyond the concert hall, Bax is known for his longtime obsession with †ne food; as a 2013 New York Times pro†le noted, he is not only notorious for hosting “epic”multi-course dinner parties, but often spends intermis- sions dreaming of meals to come. ® GRIEG Piano Concerto, op. 16, A Minor COPLAND Appalachian Spring: Suite February 12, 2022 7:30PM | The Whiting

For tickets, call 810.237.7333. tickets.thewhiting.com/9027

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