Emanuel Ax

Ax at the Hong Kong Cultural Center, 2009

Emanuel Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is an internationally acclaimed performer, and a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School.

Early life

Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (then in the USSR) to Joachim and Hellen Ax, both Nazi concentration camp survivors. Ax began to study piano at the age of six; his father was his first piano teacher. When he was seven the family moved to Warsaw, Poland (where he studied piano playing at Miodowa school) and then two years later to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where he continued to study music, including as a member of The Junior Musical Club of Winnipeg. In 1961 the family moved to New York City and Ax continued his studies at the Juilliard School under Mieczysław Munz. In 1970 he received his B.A. in French at Columbia University and became an American citizen. In 1973 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

Musical style

Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons; Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng. He also performs works by such diverse figures as Sir Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner and Paul Hindemith, as well as more traditional composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin.

Ax has been the main duo recital partner of cellist Yo-Yo Ma since August 3, 1973 when the pair performed its first public recital at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. They have recorded much of the cello/piano repertoire together. Ax also played quartets briefly with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. Before the quartet had to disband in 2001 due to the death of Stern, they recorded works for Sony by Brahms, Fauré, Beethoven, Schumann and Mozart. Ax is also a featured guest artist in a documentary film about the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, Five Days in September; the Rebirth of an Orchestra.

In 1997, Ax was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival alongside the conductor Daniel Harding.

He holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale University (awarded in May 2007) and Columbia University. He is a recipient of Yale University's Sanford Medal.

Personal life

Ax lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki, and has two children, Joey and Sarah.

Awards and recognitions

• 1974 - Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv
• 1979 - Avery Fisher Prize in New York
• 2007 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Award of Excellence, The International Center in New York

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma for Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor and F (1986)
• Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma for Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations (1987)
• Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma & Isaac Stern for Brahms: Piano (Op. 25 and 26) (1992)
• Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma for Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano (1993)
• Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma & Richard Stoltzman for Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios (1996)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra):

• Emanuel Ax for Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Nos. 32, 47, 53, 59 (1995)
• Emanuel Ax for Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos. 29, 31, 34, 35 & 49 (2004)

External links

• Official website
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Emanuel Ax and Tom Kornberg: Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, 1st movement
• David Dubal interview with Emanuel Ax on YouTube, WNCN-FM, April 16, 1982