Sedona News – On Sunday, February 16, 2025, Chamber Music Sedona will present the next concert of its 42nd season: “The Magic of Piano 4-Hands,” performed by internationally acclaimed piano duo Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung. Featuring a delightful program that celebrates the art of piano 4-hands, one of the most intimate and romantic forms of chamber music, the concert will take place at 3 p.m. at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Rd., Sedona, Ariz. 86336.
The real-life marriage of concert pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, with their abundant artistic chemistry, passion and stunning virtuosity, has led to one of today’s most impressive piano duos. In the words of the UK magazine Music and Arts, “Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one.”
Alessio Bax has been praised for creating “a ravishing listening experience” with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations and dazzling facility. A First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and a winner of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, Bax has appeared as soloist with more than 150 orchestras. His much-lauded discography includes: “Italian Inspirations,” an eclectic recital inspired by his native country; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5; and “Alessio Bax Plays Brahms, Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies” (an American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice”), among others. He also released the collection “Lullabies for Mila” on Signum Classics, which costars Chung and is dedicated to their young daughter.
First Prize winner of the Stravinsky International Piano Competition, Lucille Chung has been celebrated for her “stylish and refined” performances by Gramophone. She was born in Montreal, and made her debut at the age of 10 with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, after which Charles Dutoit invited her as soloist on the orchestra’s tour to Asia. She has since performed with orchestras around the world. Her solo discography includes the first volume of her recording of György Ligeti’s complete piano works on the Dynamic label, as well as “Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Transcriptions, Mozart & Me.” The second volume of Chung’s Ligeti project on the Dynamic label comprises his works for piano four-hands and two pianos, and marks the first recorded collaboration between Bax and Chung. The disc garnered the maximum R10 Classica from the French magazine Répertoire and five stars from Fono Forum in Germany.
After meeting at the 1997 Hamamatsu Competition, Bax and Chung carried on a courtship by telephone and email while on separate tours, eventually marrying in 2004. Together, they have performed in major festivals and concert halls around the world; in 2008 alone, they logged 20,000 miles by train as they toured their four-hand Pétrouchka across the far reaches of Stravinsky’s homeland. They have appeared at numerous international festivals, and have performed at New York’s Lincoln Center and other leading venues in recent seasons. They are also co-artistic directors of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation in Dallas, Tex., created to cultivate the legacy of the Basque pianist and to support young pianists’ careers.
For more information about “The Magic of Piano 4-Hands” and to purchase tickets, visit https://chambermusicsedona.org/2025-alessio-bax-and-lucille-chung/.