Emanuel Ax

Emanuel Ax is renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity but also for the exceptional breadth of his performing activity. Each season, his distinguished career includes appearances with major symphony orchestras worldwide, recitals in the most celebrated concert halls, a variety of chamber music collaborations, the commissioning and performance of new music, and additions to his acclaimed discography on Sony Classical.

Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when, at age 25, he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, four years later, took the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. He has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987. Mr. Ax’s third volume in the recording cycle of Haydn piano sonatas received a Grammy Award in February 2004, following the previous recording in the cycle, also a Grammy winner. Recent releases include Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart (June 2007) and two discs of two-piano programs (with Yefim Bronfman) of works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff.

In the 2007–08 season, Mr. Ax returns to orchestras in the US where he has had ongoing relationships for many years including the New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Minnesota, and National symphony orchestras. In Europe, he will appear with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra. A solo recital tour in Europe and North America will take him to celebrated venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

In the 2005–06 season, Mr. Ax served as pianist-in-residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker, performing with the orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in Berlin and New York. Other recent performance highlights have included separate recital tours with two longstanding colleagues, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Yefim Bronfman, and a season-long Perspectives at Carnegie Hall focused on the music of Debussy.

A committed proponent of contemporary composers, Mr. Ax has given world premiere performances of several new works, including John Adams’s Century Rolls (with The Cleveland Orchestra, 1997), Christopher Rouse’s Seeing (with the New York Philharmonic, 1999), and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Resurrection (with The Philadelphia Orchestra, 2002).