Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt "among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public" (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and is now a familiar face on five continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, including the London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston, Dallas, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.

Bax explores many facets of his career in the 2019-20 season. Fall brings the release of Italian Inspirations, his eleventh recording for Signum Classics. Pairing works by Luigi Dallapiccola and Alessandro Marcello with Italian-themed pieces by Rachmaninov and Liszt, the album's program is also the vehicle for Bax's solo recital debut at New York's 92nd Street Y. A further debut follows with the Milwaukee Symphony, where he plays Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto under Han-Na Chang, and the same composer's Fourth Concerto and Choral Fantasy take him to the Santa Barbara Symphony. Placing especial focus on long-term collaborative projects, this season Bax undertakes Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) and on a forthcoming Signum Classics release, both with Paul Watkins of the Emerson String Quartet; plays trios in South America with Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Daishin Kashimoto and French horn virtuoso Radovan Vlatkovic; and embarks on multiple U.S. and European recital tours with superstar violinist Joshua Bell. After headlining the North Carolina Symphony's season-opening concerts together, Bax and his regular piano partner, Lucille Chung, give duo recitals with CMS, at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, in the Yale Piano Series, and at Sala São Paulo in Brazil. Bax rounds out the season with a full summer of festivals, highlighted by his third season as Artistic Director of Tuscany's Incontri in Terra di Siena festival, which is fast becoming a major international destination for music-lovers.

Bax revisited the two concertos heard on Alessio Bax Plays Mozart for his recent debuts with the Boston and Melbourne Symphonies, both with Sir Andrew Davis, and with the Sydney Symphony, which he led himself from the keyboard. Other 2018-19 highlights include the pianist's Auckland Philharmonia debut, concerts in Israel, a Japanese tour featuring dates with the Tokyo Symphony, U.S. collaborations with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Edo de Waart, and two solo recitals marking his return to the prestigious Mozarteum Argentino series at Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón. Recent seasons have also 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 Center, and New York's Carnegie Hall. In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.

Bax is a staple on the international summer festival circuit, and has performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; the Aldeburgh Festival, Bath Festival, and Southbank Centre's International Piano Series in England; the Risør Festival in Norway; the Salon-de-Provence Festival in France; the Moritzburg Festival, Ruhr Klavier-Festival, and Beethovenfest Bonn in Germany; and Le Pont International Music Festival in Japan. In the U.S., he makes regular appearances at Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and New York's Bard Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Bax has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Ian Bostridge, Lucille Chung, Sol Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Jörg Widmann, and the Emerson String Quartet, among many others.

Bax's celebrated discography for Signum Classics includes Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" and "Moonlight" Sonatas (a Gramophone "Editor's Choice"); Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto; Bax & Chung, a duo disc with Lucille Chung that includes Stravinsky's original four-hand version of the ballet Pétrouchka as well as music by Brahms and Piazzolla; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, comprising Piano Concertos K. 491 and K. 595 with London's Southbank Sinfonia and Simon Over; Alessio Bax: Scriabin & Mussorgsky (named "Recording of the Month . and quite possibly . of the year" by MusicWeb International); Alessio Bax plays Brahms (a Gramophone "Critics' Choice"); Bach Transcribed; and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (an American Record Guide "Critics' Choice 2011"). Recorded for Warner Classics, his Baroque Reflections album was also a Gramophone "Editor's Choice." He performed Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available as a DVD boxed set on the EMI label.

Alessio Bax graduated with top honors 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 Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas to continue his studies with Achúcarro at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts. In fall 2019, Bax joins the piano faculty of Boston's New England Conservatory. A Steinway artist, he lives in New York City with Lucille Chung and their five-year-old daughter, Mila. Beyond the concert hall he is known for his longtime obsession with fine food; as a 2013 New York Times profile noted, he is not only notorious for hosting "epic" multi-course dinner parties, but often spends his intermissions dreaming of meals to come.

James Rhodes has no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring. The title of the debut album “Razor Blades Little Pills and Big Pianos”, hints at the suffering that dogged Rhodes’s childhood and early adult life. Classical music became his solace and key to his survival. It was Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, not Faith Hope and Charity, that offered comfort.

In 1993, mental health issues stopped him taking up a scholarship to the Guildhall. A chance meeting, 10 years later, with Franco Panozzo, agent to Russian concert pianist virtuoso, Grigori Sokolov. Panozzo arranged for James to have a brief tutorage by the renowned piano teacher Edoardo Strabbioli in Verona Italy.

Suffering further setbacks due to health issues it was not until 2008, when Rhodes met his present manager, Denis Blais, that he was encouraged to record his first CD. This enabled him to bare his soul and put many of the ghosts of the past to rest.

With Blais, Rhodes also created a distinctive and unique approach to how the classical piano repertoire should be presented. Uncomfortable with the austere and traditional ‘white tie and tails’ recital they decided it was time for the performer to communicate directly with the audience. Rhodes was going to introduce his own programme notes and share what it takes to perform these works of art using fascinating anecdotes about the composers and his own life experience. Delivered in his unique trademark stand-up style he creates an immersive experience that has won him and classical music a dedicated new following.

2008/2009 saw his profile go from complete unknown to rising star, attracting celebrity followers such as Stephen Fry, Derren Brown and Sir David Tang. Having performed in non-traditional classical venues such as the 100 Club, the Tabernacle and Proud Galleries, James built on this new revolutionary performance approach. The pinnacle performance being at London’s historical Roundhouse where he was the first classical pianist to perform since it’s reopening. His debut CD Razor Blades Little Pills and Big Pianos also went to number one on the iTunes chart.

In October 2009 James appeared in his first documentary on BBC Four’s CHOPIN: THE WOMEN BEHIND THE MUSIC. He also released his second album “Will all Freudians please stand aside”, which also made it to No1 on the iTunes chart.

In March 2010, Rhodes became the first core classical pianist to be signed to the world’s largest rock label Warner Bros Records. His 1st album with Warner Bros, “Bullets & Lullabies” became his 3rd No1 iTunes album. That summer he was also the first solo classical pianist to play the Latitude Festival sharing stages with international stars such as Florence the Machine and The National.

Within three years of his debut, James presented and performed in his very own television series JAMES RHODES: PIANO MAN on Sky Arts which first aired in December 2010 – January 2011.

In September 2011 he performed alongside Stephen Fry in A CLASSICAL AFFAIR at the Barbican Centre. Then in October 2011 James performed an 11 date tour of Australia which kicked off at the Melbourne Festival to a sell out audience.

Returning back to his original label Signum Classics, Rhodes released his 4th album “JIMMY: James Rhodes recorded live at The Old Market Brighton” in May 2012.

In September 2012 he has his debut performance in the US at the International Beethoven Festival in Chicago.

2013, James performed in Hong Kong, Vienna, the Barber Institute in Birmingham, Royal Albert Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival, Waterfront stage at Latitude Festival and a series at Soho Theatre in London. He also presented and performed in the acclaimed television documentary NOTES FROM THE INSIDE which aired in August 2013 on Channel 4 in the UK.

2014 was a very busy year for James, releasing his 5th studio album “Five” in the summer and launching his new label, Instrumental Records. A live in concert DVD, “Love In London”, recorded at the Arts Theatre in London’s West End was also released this year.

James filmed a new series for Channel 4 called DON’T STOP THE MUSIC that aired in September 2015 in the UK. James is passionate about the power of music to change lives and is shocked at the state of music education in the UK. This two-part documentary followed James’ attempt to give schoolchildren the chance to learn a musical instrument by calling for an ‘instrument amnesty’ – a mission to collect unused musical instruments from around the country. James’ campaign managed to provide schools all over the UK with over £1million worth of instruments.

James also presented and performed in Channel 4’s PIANO NIGHT, interviewing celebrities including Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Rusbridger and Derren Brown at the piano.

His Sunday Times and international bestselling memoir, Instrumental, published by Canongate is a brutally honest, moving and compelling story that was almost banned until the Supreme Court unanimously overthrew an injunction in May 2015.

Instrumental recently reached No. 1 in Spain on the ABC non-fiction list. His SoundCloud and YouTube channels have had over 10,000,000 views, and he has over 500,000 listeners per month on Spotify.

In 2016 James headlined some of the most important festivals in Spain, including Sonar by Day (Barcelona), Festival de Verano de San Lorenzo (El Escorial Madrid) and Veranos de la Villa (Madrid). He will also embark on tours to Germany, Italy and South Africa later in 2016.

James has also signed a new two-book deal with Quercus/ Hachette Publishers. The first book was published October 2016, entitled How to Play the Piano. The second, Fire on All Sides, was published in November 2017 and was an instant bestseller. He released his 7th CD, under the same name, also at this time. The CD went straight to Number 1 position on the iTunes classical charts.

In 2017, James had many concert highlights which included sell-out performances at the Teatro Real Madrid, Palau de la Musica Barcelona, and Europe’s most celebrated new performing arts centre the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. James also participated and performed at international book festivals in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. James ended his Latin American tour with a performance at the National Sawdust Theatre in New York.

James started 2018 with a string of concerts across Spain and Portugal. He also started to appear regularly has a guest/ co-host on Spain’s Cadena SER Radio and the massively popular late time television chat show Late Motif.

This summer James penned an open letter to the President of Spain, demanding his government do more to address a much needed change in the legislature on Child Protection. As a result of this letter and with the support of Save The Children Spain, President Sanchez of Spain has initiated the amendment required to protect more effectively the wellbeing and safekeeping of our children. James hopes that the Spanish amendments will create a template for other governments around the globe to emulate.

Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence and the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. He has worked with orchestras including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru, I Pomeriggi Musicali, Meininger Hofkapelle, Berner Kammerorchester, and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. A regular performer in the Wigmore Hall’s main piano series, Williams has also appeared at the BBC Proms in London, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in the USA, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse and the Edinburgh International Festival. He is a regular performer at the East Neuk Festival in Scotland and is currently Artist-in-Association at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Artist-in-Residence at the Cowbridge Festival in Wales.

Williams is an acclaimed performer of Beethoven with several complete piano sonata cycles under his belt. Following a successful first cycle in Perth, Williams subsequently performed a complete cycle during an epic two-week marathon in Edinburgh that won him the prestigious South Bank Show Award. He later completed two cycles as a nine-recital project at the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff between 2014 and 2017. In January 2017 he completed a successful collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in performances of all five Beethoven piano concerti.

The 2018-19 season included his debut with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and returns to the Royal Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales as well as a highly successful Canadian recital debut at Salle Bourgie in Montreal, with the critic of Le Devoir describing Williams as ‘un secret trop bien gardé’. The 2019-20 season sees Llŷr Williams continuing his collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, as well as his debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne. Williams also returns to the Edinburgh Festival in August 2019, while for the Beethoven anniversary season he will offer a complete sonata cycle at the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico and partial cycles in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Llŷr Williams’ eclectic taste is reflected in his discography. April 2018 saw the release of ‘Beethoven Unbound’, a 12-CD Box set of the Wigmore Hall Beethoven cycle, on Signum Records, which was BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Recording of the Month’ in August 2018. His previous critically acclaimed CD, Wagner Without Words (Signum, August 2014) reflects Williams’ intimate relationship with operatic music. Other recordings by Williams include two solo albums for Signum, as well as William Mathias’ second Piano Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales on Welsh label Tŷ Cerdd.

Born in Pentrebychan, North Wales, Llŷr Williams read music at The Queen’s College, Oxford and went on to take up a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he won every available prize and award. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales. He was an active member of the Live Music Now! scheme for several years, was selected for the Young Concert Artists Trust in 2002. From 2003-2005 he was a BBC New Generation Artist and in 2004 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award.

Jeremy Filsell enjoys a concert career as one of only a few virtuoso performers on both the Piano and the Organ. He has performed as a solo pianist in Russia, the USA and throughout the UK and has appeared regularly at St John’s Smith Square and the Conway and Wigmore Halls in London. His Concerto repertoire encompasses Mozart and Beethoven through to Rachmaninov (2nd and 3rd Concertos), Shostakovich and John Ireland and in recent years, he has recorded the solo piano music of Carl Johann Eschmann, Eugene Goossens and the two Sonatas of Liszt’s pupil Julius Reubke. In the piano music of Herbert Howells and Bernard Stevens, Classic CD magazine commented that “he does not attract for his virtuosity but for his ability to make the music unfold with irresistible logic and clarity: music-making of the highest calibre.” He is pianist with the London-based Burghersh Piano Trio and performs regularly with Oliver Lewis (Violin), with whom he has recorded discs of Elgar, Ireland, Ferguson and Goossens for Guild. With Michael Bundy (Baritone), two discs of Mélodies by Widor, Vierne and Dupré are due for release by Naxos.
Jeremy Filsell has recorded for BBC Radio 3, USA and Scandinavian radio networks in solo and concerto roles as both a pianist and organist and, as an organist specifically, has a discography comprising over 20 solo recordings for labels Signum, Guild, Gamut, Herald and ASV. Gramophone magazine, writing on the series of 12 CDs comprising the premiere recordings of Marcel Dupré’s complete organ works for Guild in 2000, praised his performance as “one of the greatest achievements in organ recording…Filsell’s astonishing interpretative and technical skills make for compulsive listening … truly distinguished, compelling and unquestionably authoritative performances; Filsell has phenomenal technique.” In 2005, Signum released a 3-disc set on the famous 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Ouen Rouen of the complete organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. These were BBC Radio 3’s Disc of the Week in September of that year.
Jeremy studied as a music scholar at Oxford University, then as a post-graduate pianist under David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music before completing a PhD at Birmingham Conservatoire researching aesthetic and interpretative issues in the organ music of Marcel Dupré. Over the course of his career, he has taught piano, organ and academic studies at Cranleigh, Eton and the London Oratory School, given masterclasses at universities and summer schools in both the UK and USA, served twice on international competition juries and, until recently, held lectureships at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and London’s Royal Academy of Music. He lives currently in the USA and is Principal Organist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., one of the largest churches in the world and the flagship Catholic Church in North America.

Jill Crossland studied at Chethams School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Ryszard Bakst, and in Vienna with Paul Badura-Skoda and Sally Sargent. She performed the complete Well-tempered Clavier from memory as a student in Manchester and has always been closely associated with the work. Jill pursues an active concert and recording career in the UK and abroad, including regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall and South Bank in London. She is particularly known for her performances of 18th-century music. Jill has also played at Bridgewater Hall, Fairfield and Blackheath Halls, St George’s Bristol, the Sage Gateshead, National Concert Hall Dublin, Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus and Leipzig Gewandhaus and numerous performances for festivals and other venues. Jill has been a member of the Musicians in Residence scheme, supported by funding from Arts Council England. She also participates in audience development projects in her native Yorkshire and the surrounding region.
Bach’s complete Well-tempered Clavier is also available on Signum; it has been described as ‘polished and compelling’ by International Record Review, and as ‘mesmerizing’ by Fanfare magazine. Jill has made other recordings of works by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Rameau, Mozart and Beethoven, including Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Among many critical plaudits: ‘She well deserves her enviable reputation as a Bach pianist.’ (BBC Music Magazine) and has been called ‘a highly individual [Bach] player’ and a ‘natural Mozartean’ (Penguin Guide to CDs), her playing described as having ‘intensity and real pathos’ (International Record Review), and her Beethoven as ‘delightful’ and ‘magnetic’ by turns (American Record Guide). Jill has appeared on radio and television, including performing on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and on RTE’s Late Late Show. She has also recorded a number of film and TV soundtracks, including work for the BFI and ITV. Jill’s recordings have also featured in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.