Joaquin Achucarro

"Achúcarro is the consummate artist. The man is the music, and the music is the man.”
Chicago Sun Times

One of the top Spanish pianists of his generation, Joaquin Achúcarro was born in Bilbao, Spain, in the midst of the Great Depression. He began piano lessons at the age of 13 and made his professional debut playing a Mozart concerto with the local orchestra. In his late teens and early twenties, Achúcarro traveled around Europe taking lessons from one teacher after another, the most prominent including Walter Gieseking and Nikita Magaloff. In 1959, he took top prize at the Liverpool International Competition, making a successful debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and shifting his performing career into high gear. He has since been heard all around the globe, as a soloist with the world's major orchestras and as an in-demand recitalist. He has taught since the late '80s at Southern Methodist University in Texas, but is still very much present in the cultural life of Spain, as evidenced by the fact that the King of Spain knighted him in 1996. 

                                                              Alessio Bax

“Alessio Bax has a musicianship beyond technical mastery. He successfully combines authority and poetry.”
The Times (London)

Alessio Bax, 30-year old pianist from Bari, Italy, is a poetic and sensitive pianist with a brilliant technique. First Prize winner of the Leeds and Hamamatsu piano competitions, Alessio plays with control and eloquence, innate understanding of the works logic and impetus ... and absolute conviction in his conception of the music [The Independent]. He has appeared as soloist with more than 70 orchestras in America, Europe and Asia and given recitals in Rome, Madrid, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, New York City, Washington, DC and other cities. In 2005 Bax was selected to play the Fugue of Beethoven Hammerklavierâ Sonata for the documentary Barenboim on Beethoven, by Channel 13/PBS and broadcast world-wide. On the teaching faculty of the Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Mr. Bax makes his home in New York City with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung.

Idil Biret

“Her Chopin recordings have received a grand Prix du Disque
Chopin award in Poland and the Boulez recording the Golden
Diapason of the Year award in France.”

Idil Biret manifested an outstanding gift for music at the age of three
and was trained at the Paris Conservatory under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger, graduating at age 15 with three prizes. She studied with Alfred Cortot and was a lifelong disciple of Wilhelm Kempff, who
considered her his best student. She has given concerts throughout the world with major orchestras and conductors, including a series with the Boston Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf. Over the years Idil Biret has made more then seventy recordings, including the world premiere recording of the nine Beethoven symphonies transcribed by Lizst, and complete solos piano works and the concertos of Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov and the three piano sonatas of Pierre Boulez. Vigor Kipnis salutes her playing with “The complete Chopin set by idil Biret can stand among the highest echelons of contemporary Chopin playing”.

Peter Frankl

“A true artist, Frankl’s musical world appears in a deep place
that only masters can reach.”
Le Montle de la Musique

Hungarian-born Peter Frankl is one of the world’s outstanding pianists. Recognized as a major artist of his generation, he has a long-standing international career which has taken him to more than fifty countries as recitalist, chamber musician and as soloist with many of the world’s great conductors, such as Abbado, Ashkenazy, Boulez, Solti, Masur, Dohnanyi and Maazel. In highly acclaimed performances in recitals and with the world’s finest orchestras Frankl’s playing combines romanticism and inspiration with vivacity and color. A highly versatile performer, his repertoire ranges extensively from classics to contemporary music. On the faculty of the Yale University School of Music, Frankl has been a regular performer at renowned festivals throughout the world.