Pianist Tamás Ungár has earned worldwide acclaim for his powerful performances and innovative programming. A regular guest artist at numerous music centers in the United States , he also performs and teaches frequently all over the globe. Between the 1997-99 seasons he performed over 70 concerts in America , Australia , Brazil , Colombia , Hungary , Romania , England , Taiwan , Hong Kong, The People’s Republic of China, Korea and Japan . Some of the highlights of recent seasons include performances with the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, performing as soloist/conductor of Mozart Piano Concertos at the University of Leeds , as Artist-in-Residence and a return visit to present a solo recital and master class series at the Liszt Academy in Budapest . In addition to his performing commitments, Tamás Ungár has become one of United States ’ best-known and most respected teachers of the piano. As Founder - Executive Director of PianoTexas International academy & Festiva and member of the TCU Piano Faculty, he attracts students from across America and as far afield as Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Kazakstan, Korea, Hungary, Japan, Malaya, Mexico, Poland, Republic of Georgia, Singapore, Russia and Taiwan. His students have received prizes in national and international competitions, have performed in prestigious music centers including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City and have made numerous recordings. For the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, three of his students were invited to participate, an achievement reserved for very few teachers. Since 1989 Tamás Ungár has been a regular guest teacher at the most important music centers in China and in 2006 he was appointed as Artistic Director of the China Conservatory International Piano Festival in Bejing. Dr. Ungár’s most influential teachers included Alexander Sverjensky at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Lajos Hernádi at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and György Sebök at Indiana University , where he was awarded the Doctorate in Music. Prior to his present position he taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Purcell School, England and at the University of California at San Diego . Tamás Ungár records exclusively for CALA Records.

“His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” says Gramophone magazine, leading to “an out-of-body experience” (Dallas Morning News). Since taking first prizes at the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, Bax has won audiences across the globe. In 2009 he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music.
Highlights of Bax’s 2011/12 season include appearances as soloist with the Dallas Symphony under Jaap van Zweden, orchestras in London, Bilbao, Castilla y León and Mexico City, a return to Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and the opening night of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s season at Alice Tully Hall where he is in his third year as a member of CMS Two. A new solo album, “Rachmaninov: Preludes and Melodies” (Signum Classics), was released in June, adding to his already acclaimed discography. In July Bax played a Brahms “Carte Blanche” recital and chamber music in his eagerly anticipated return to Music@Menlo. Also this season he performs recitals in Iceland, Cyprus, Rome, Taipei, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, France and Spain, tours Canada with pianist Lucille Chung, and collaborates with violinist Karen Gomyo in Toronto, as well as with cellist Sol Gabetta at the Kennedy Center, under the auspices of the Washington Performing Arts Society.
During the 2010/11 season, Bax appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK, Vancouver Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony under Marin Alsop, and he played solo recitals at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Harriman-Jewell series in Kansas City. His extensive concerto repertoire has led to performances with over 90 orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Rome Symphony, Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with a number of esteemed conductors such as Marin Alsop, Sergiu Commissiona, Alexander Dimitriev, Vernon Handley, Jacques Lacombe, Jonathan Nott, Vasily Petrenko, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Christopher Warren-Greene and Sir Simon Rattle.
Festival appearances include London's International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, England's Aldeburgh and Bath festivals, and the Ruhr Klavierfestival, BeethovenFest and Schloss Elmau in Germany. Bax has performed in recital at music halls in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington, DC. Also an active chamber musician, he has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Andrés Diaz, Pamela Frank, Steven Isserlis and Anne-Marie McDermott, among others.
Bax’s 2009 CD, Bach Transcribed, received rave reviews from Gramophone magazine (“awesome”) and Fanfare (“this disc is a must”). Baroque Reflections, his 2004 recording for Warner Classics, was selected as a Gramophone "Editor\'s Choice” and American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice” (“a disc to treasure”). In 2005, Bax and pianist Lucille Chung recorded Saint-Saëns‘s Carnival of the Animals with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. They have also recorded the complete works for two pianos and piano four hands of György Ligeti on Dynamic Records. In addition, Bax has chronicled the complete works for piano and organ of Marcel Dupré for Naxos, and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, live with the New Japan Philharmonic, for Fontec. Also on Fontec, Bax released a live recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Hamamatsu Symphony Orchestra.
In 2005, Alessio Bax was selected to play the Fugue of Beethoven‘s "Hammerklavier" Sonata for Maestro Daniel Barenboim in Barenboim on Beethoven. The documentary was produced by Channel 13/PBS, in conjunction with Bel Air Media, BBC, and NHK Japan. It was broadcast worldwide and released as a DVD box set in 2006 on the EMI label. His performances are often broadcast live on the BBC, CBC (Canada), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain), NHK (Japan), WDR, NDR and Bayerische Rundfunk (Germany), Hungarian Radio Television, Serbian RTE, among others.
Alessio Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of his hometown in Bari, Italy. He studied in France with François-Joël Thiollier, and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. He moved to Dallas in 1994 to continue his studies with Achúcarro at SMU\'s Meadows School of the Arts. He is now on the teaching faculty there. He and his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, reside in New York City. Alessio Bax is a Steinway artist.

The Georgian pianist, Alexander Korsantia, began music studies at the age of five with his mother, Sventlana Korsantia, a professor of piano at the Tbilisi State Conservatory. Recognized as a child prodigy, he won First Prize at the Trans-Caucasian Music Competition in Armenia at the age of 16. Among his mentors are his mother and Tengiz Amiredjibi, Georgia's foremost piano instructor. He received Performance Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma from Georgian State Conservatory. In 1988 he took First Prize at the International Piano Competition in Sydney, Australia, where he was also awarded two special concerto prizes. This outstanding performance led to many concert engagements in Europe and the Far East. In 1993 he made an extensive tour of Japan performing recitals and as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Orchestra “Classica” and the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. In 1992 Alexander Korsantia, with his family, came to the USA and joined the famed piano studio of fellow Georgian, Alexander Toradze, at Indiana University in South Bend (receiving M.M.). Subsequently, he won First Prize at the 1994 Palm Beach International Invitational Piano Competition, and in 1995, First Prize - Gold Medal and the “Audience Favorite” Prize at Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel-Aviv.
A veritable superstar in his country of birth, Alexander Korsantia was awarded in 1999 one of the most prestigious national awards, the Medal of Honor, bestowed on him by then-President, Eduard Shevardnadze. In January 2003, Georgian National TV released a full-length documentary about him and in February 2004 he performed at the inauguration of President Saakashvili. In March 1999 Alexander Korsantia established a new concert series at the Performing Arts Center in Tel Aviv called “Korsantia and Friends” which has become popular with the media, musicians and general public. Alexander Korsantia has gained audience and critical acclaim for his versatility, power, and the unique sincerity of his playing. He has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Today he can be heard on the stages of the world’s major concert halls that include Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls in New York, Orchestra Hall and Ravinia Pavillion in Chicago, Herculeszaal in Munich, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Metropolitan Hall in Tokyo, Mann Auditorium in Tel-Aviv, Rudolphinum in Budapest, and Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors and renowned artists as Valery Gergiev, Christoff Eshenbach, Paavo Järvi, Zdenec Macal, Gianandrea Noseda, Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Temirkanov, Vadim Repin (violin), the Jerusalem Quartet and Sakari Oramo, among others; and orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kirov Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights of the 2005-2007 seasons were performances of Prokofiev's Third Concerto and Mozart B flat major Concerto with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and with Boston Pro Arte Orchestra, S. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 with RAI Orchestra, Turin, Dvorak Concerto with Jerusalem Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic and Igor Stravinsky's Concerto with UK Youth Orchestra as well as Israel Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra in LA, Elgin Symphony in Chicago, Louisville Symphony Orchestras giving performances in such a concert halls as Verdi Auditorium in Milan and Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome. As a very important part of his schedule, Alexander Korsantia appears frequently in his homeland of Georgia in concerts, on television and radio.
Season 2007-2008 brought Alexander Korsantia’s debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and S. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, and performances with the Omaha, Elgin and Pacific Symphonies. These concerts followed a stint with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos the previous summer, where he performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and the 2nd Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto nine times. In Europe he was heard on tour with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in France and Germany, as well as with the Noeburg Chamber Orchestra across Germany. He also gave recitals at the Festival Piano Jacobins in Toulouse, and in Calgary, Lodz, and his hometown, Tbilisi, Georgia. The highlights of recent seasons were performances of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mozart B flat major Concerto with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, S. Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with RAI Orchestra in Turin, the Dvorak Concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic and the I. Stravinsky Concerto with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver, Omaha, Oregon, Louisville Symphony Orchestras and a tour throughout Italy with the Georgian State Symphony. Other noteworthy engagements have included a televised performance of S. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; performances at the Stresa Festival in Italy under the baton of Yuri Bashmet; concerts at the Newport, Tanglewood, Vancouver, Gilmore festivals; with the symphony orchestras of Louisville, Brazil, Bogota, Jerusalem and the City of Birmingham, the Georgian State Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and others. He has also participated in a United States recital tour with renowned violinist Vadim Repin.
This season (2008-2009) Alexander Korsantia returns to Israel for the concerts with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Rafael de Burgos to perform Second Concerto by J. Brahms and Beethoven's "Emperor" and with Israel Chamber Orchestra for Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto and E flat Major Concerto, which Beethoven wrote when he was 14 years old. He is also appearing in concerts with Quebec City Symphony Orchestra, Georgian State Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Temirkanov, Kirov Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda, recitals and chamber music concerts at the Barge Festival, New York, Boston, Tel-Aviv, Glasgow, Calgary, Toulouse and Noeburg and Nice among others.
Future activities include engagements with the Jerusalem Symphony, Louisville Symphony Orchestra, Stresa Festival, Gilmore Festival in Michigan, and a Carnegie Hall recital. He is also recording for the Audiophon label, and USA. Recordings of Mozart and Schostakovich concertos with the Camerata Israel Chamber Orchestra were released in Spring of 2002.
Alexander Korsantia has been a Guest Professor of Piano at Jerusalem’s Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. Before his appointment to the UBC School of Music in 2001 he held the position of Assistant Professor at Indiana University South Bend, Indiana. He was also on the faculty of the University of British Columbia. Recently he joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston (where he now resides) as is a professor of piano.
Dubbed “a major artist” by the Miami Herald and a “quiet maverick” by the Daily Telegraph, pianist Alexander Korsantia has been praised for the “clarity of his technique, richly varied tone and dynamic phrasing” (Baltimore Sun), and a “piano tewhere difficulties simply do not exist” (Calgary Sun). The Boston Globe found his interpretation of Pictures of an Exhibition to be “a performance that could annihilate all others one has heard.” And the Birmingham Post gushed that “his intensely responsive reading was shot through with a vein of constant fantasy, whether musing or mercurial.”

Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone-full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical - is a perpetual delight" BBC Music Magazine "Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy was so much more than an essay in Bravura. It showed McLachlan as one of the outstanding contemporary British Pianists in both technique and musical insight " Yorkshire Post

He received his early training at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy for talented Children as a student of Anna Kantor. In 1977 he immigrated to the United States and completed his formal studies at the Juilliard School and Manhatten School of Music under Prof. Alexander Eydelman. In 1981, he swept every major prize at the William Kapell International Piano Competition in Maryland, capturing not only the First Prize, but also the Audience Prize and the Wilhelm Bachhaus Award. Thereafter, he also won Awards during the Kosciusko Chopin Competition, the International Bach Competition, the International Busoni Competition etc. and started his international performance career. He has performed in almost every continent as recitalist and soloist with many big orchestras under famous conductors. He is a sought after judge in many international piano competitions and gives Master classes. Among his two decades of chamber music activities is included a critically acclaimed recording with violinist Ilya Kaler of Schumann’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Since 1993 he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he served as the Piano Department Chair from 2000 until 2003.

He has undertaken numerous overseas study tours to investigate music education in Europe, Japan, South America, USA, Hungary, Poland and the former Soviet Union. He has adjudicated at all the major eisteddfods in Australia and has been on international juries, including Deputy Chairman of the Piano Jury for the Tchaikowsky Competition Moscow 1982 and 1990, Gina Bachauer Competition 1991, Sydney Competition 1988, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, and New Zealand National Concerto Competition 1993, Cincinnati World Piano Competition 1993, UNISA Transet Competition (Pretoria, South Africa) 1994, Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Japan) 1994, Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition - Kiev – 1995, 1997 and 1999, Krainev Competition in Kharkov 1996, José Iturbi Competition – Valenzia Spain – 1996, Cologne International Competition, Germany, 1996, Schubert Competition, Germany, 1999, Trani International Piano Competition, Italy, 2004 and 2006, Tbilisi International Piano Competition, Georgia, 2005, Shanghai International Piano Competition, P.R. China, 2005, Thalberg International Piano Competition Naples, Italy, 2006, China International Piano Competition, Xiamen, P.R. China, 2007. In 2009 he was a Special Guest at the 4th Tbilisi International Piano Competition in Georgia in October. He was on the Jury of the First International Piano Competition for Non-Professional pianists Tianjin, P. R. China and a member of the Jury for the 7th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. In 2010 he was on the Jury for the National Association Piano Competition in Tokyo, Japan, Hannover (held in Wernigerode), Panama International Piano Competition and the 1st Chopin International Piano Competition in Singapore. In 2011, he was invited to be an Member of the Honorary Board of the International Royal Kracow Piano Festival.

Dan-Wen Wei, a native of the People’s Republic of China, is hailed as one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation. His commanding technique and artistic temperament have resulted in his appearances as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, The Seattle Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Augusta Symphony, symphony of the Americas, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony, the Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra, the National Orchestra of China and the Singapore Symphony among many others. Mr. Wei’s has collaborated with conductors such as Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Leppard, Olaf Koch, Catherine Comet, Yong-Yan Hu, Lan Shui, and Marion Alsop.
Mr. Wei made his critically acclaimed New York Debut in 1991, performing with the New York Philharmonic on the opening concert of the Mozart Bicentennial at Lincoln Center. His performance was broadcast internationally on PBS as part of the “Live From Lincoln Center” series. As a recitalist, Mr. Wei has performed in cities throughout the United States as well as in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Switzerland. Mr. Wei has performed in festivals such as the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Mostly Mozart festival in New York, the Beijing Music Festival, and the “Tuscan Sun Festival” in Cortona, Italy.
Mr. Wei released a debut solo recording on the 3D Classics label which includes work by Liszt, Chopin and Schubert. His world-premiere recording of a concerto by Chinese composer Zhang Zhao was released by China Recording corp. in 2000. His second solo album “Love’s memory” which consists of short pieces by Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Liszt was released in 2005 in China. Mr. Wei began his piano studies at the age of four, giving his first public concert at the age of nine. He entered the prestigious Central Conservatory of China at twelve and made his first European tour at age seventeen performing in Moscow, Odessa, Prague, and Sofia among other cities throughout Eastern Europe.
A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Wei was also very fortunate to be one of the last pupils of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Mr. Wei has been awarded prizes at numerous piano competitions including the Montreal International Piano Competition, the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition, and the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition.
A much sought-after teacher and a frequent adjudicator in China, Mr. Wei collaborated with Shenyang Conservatory of Music to create the International Music Education Center. He has been teaching there since the fall of 2003. Since then, many of his students have won top prizes in many competitions. A large number of his students have been accepted by some of the world’s top conservatories including the Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the Royal College in London, and many others. Mr. Wei appears regularly in summer festivals such as the Berlin International Music Festival and Academy, the Perugia Music Fest, and the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy.
In addition to being a teacher and a performer, Mr. Wei was the founder and artistic director of “International Concert Alliance, (ICA) a non-profit corporation dedicated to making classical music reach more people by presenting quality concert series as well as an annual Young People’s Piano Competition in New York area. ICA also presented “The Imperial Garden Concert Series” in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China. Mr. Wei’s artistic personality has also resulted in him being featured in the Vanity Fair magazine as well as in the Book-”Evenings with Horowitz” by David Dubal.