Husband and Wife Make Blissful Music

“20 Fingers, 88 Keys,” add up to two outstanding pianists.  Husband-and-wife team Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, at two pianos, will show off their enormous skill in a July 24 concert of Ravel, Schubert and Stravinsky. Montreal-born Chung and Bax, an Italian by birth, now live in New York City. But both have far-ranging lists of accomplishments that cross many borders.

Chung graduated from both Julliard in New York and Philadelphia's Curtis Institute -- before she was 20. She was the 1989 First Prize winner of the Stravinsky International Piano Competition.  Her fluency is not only in music. She speaks French, English, Korean, Italian, German and Russian as well.

Claude Gingras, writing for Canadian newspaper La Presse, said, "Lucille Chung sails through the (Camille Saint-Saëns) score with impressive virtuosity and power. The most challenging passages do not diminish the immense pleasure this performance provides, in which nuance and subtlety have their own place.”

Alessio Bax matches his wife in awards, distinctions and talent.  He has performed with more than 80 orchestras and attended SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, where he now teaches. At 14, he graduated from the Bari, Italy conservatory. He continued his studies in Europe and then moved to Dallas in 1994, to follow his teacher, Joaquin Achucarro. 

The Dallas Morning Herald wrote of his 2004 performance of Bach's Concerto in D minor for solo keyboard, "Mr. Bax, a product of training in his native Italy as well as at Southern Methodist University, is a formidable artist who showed his quality from the first notes. This was playing free of affectation but expressive and clear. Particularly memorable was the beautifully shaped adagio. "

In performance, this musically compatible couple will multiply listeners' pleasure exponentially. Their Westport Arts Center concert takes place at Saugatuck Congregational Church on July 24 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$25. For more information, visit the WAC website.

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