Internationally celebrated pianist Alessio Bax to perform with SC Philharmonic

The South Carolina Philharmonic presents One Night with Don Juan Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 7:30 PM at the Koger Center for the Arts.

This fifth concert in the 2022/23 Masterworks Series welcomes internationally celebrated pianist Alessio Bax to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, which will close the concert. The program begins with Richard Strauss’ virtuosic tone-poem Don Juan. The rolling national premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain Suite will serve as the evening’s centerpiece. Concert ticket prices range from $20-$55. Half-price student rush tickets are available in select sections 30 minutes prior to the concert. Concert tickets may be purchased at scphilharmonic.com or by calling the Koger Center Box Office at 803.251.2222. Audiences may stream the concert live or enjoy it on demand by getting virtual tickets at www.scphilharmonic.com.

Pianist Alessio Bax 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 150 orchestras, including the London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the New York, Boston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, 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, Fabio Luisi, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.

Bax appeared with the South Carolina Philharmonic in 2014 when he performed Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. Bax and Music Director Morihiko Nakahara made an informal pact that the pianist would return to Columbia to perform Brahms’ second piano concerto, and they have finally made good on that agreement as Bax prepares to take the Koger Center Stage once again in 2023.

The South Carolina Philharmonic is also delighted to participate in the national rolling premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain Suite – which will be performed as the centerpiece of the One Night with Don Juan program. Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain, based on the 1997 novel by Charles Frazier, was premiered by the Santa Fe Opera in 2015. Higdon composed the suite, which will be performed by the SC Philharmonic, on a commission from New Music for America, a program of the League of American Orchestras. The League enlisted orchestras from all over the country to participate in the commission and to perform this new work. The suite was premiered by the Delaware Symphony in September 2022, and is making its way around the country with the SC Philharmonic and The Long Bay Symphony (Myrtle Beach, SC) serving as the SC partner orchestras.

Opening the March 11^th program will be Richard Strauss’ tone-poem Don Juan. This piece scandalized audiences in 1889 with his symphonic character depictions of libertine-level eroticism. Don Juan is also known as a virtuosic endeavor by orchestras worldwide – requiring great technical skill from its players. As this piece finds a home on the Koger Stage this season, it is a testament to the organization’s confidence in their artistic capabilities due to the high-level abilities of the orchestra’s members. 

The SC Philharmonic’s One Night with Don Juan will be presented on Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 7:30 PM at the Koger Center for the Arts. Tickets may be purchased at scphilharmonic.com or by calling the Koger Center Box Office at 803-251-2222.

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