One of the 20th and 21st century's most highly regarded pianists,
Emanuel Ax has performed all over the United States and Europe. His repertoire includes chamber music literature such as
Béla Bartók,
Schoenberg, and
Mozart. He regularly performs concerts and recitals with
Yo-Yo Ma and
Yong Uck Kim.
Ax spends a great deal of his time performing concerts and recitals. A renowned pianist at the age of 25, his popularity as a classical pianist has only increased.
Ax was born in Lvov, Poland, on June 8, 1949. His love for the piano began at the age of six when he began taking lessons in Warsaw. He and his family moved to North America in 1961, where he continued his piano lessons. At the Juilliard School of Music in New York,
Ax studied with Mieczyslaw Munz. He made his professional debut recital in 1973. In 1974,
Ax earned international fame when he won the first Arthur Rubenstein International Competition in Israel. From this one competition came a lifetime of notoriety as a pianist. After numerous recitals and performances all over the world and playing in London in 1977,
Ax traveled back to New York to win the Avery Fisher Prize for Music in 1979. He regularly performs with the
New York Philharmonic,
Boston Symphony, and
Philadelphia Orchestra. Aside from these concerts and recitals,
Ax performs at festivals, including Ravinia, Aspen, and Tanglewood. In 1994, he played
Mozart's D minor concerto at the London Proms.
In 1987,
Ax signed an exclusive contract with the Sony Classical label. He recorded the
Liszt Concertos and a Schoenberg Concerto, as well as many works by
Beethoven and
Brahms, including the Brahms' Second Concerto with the
Boston Symphony, conducted by
Bernard Haitink. The
second and
third releases in his
Haydn piano sonata cycle each won him a Grammy Award. While touring in Europe during the 1996-97 season,
Ax played
Hans Werner Henze's Tristan, conducted by
Kurt Masur, for the composer's 70th birthday. His concert tours have been a major part of his international recognition, including concerts with the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the
European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Berlin Festival Orchestra. During his musical career, he has worked with such conductors as
Simon Rattle,
Donald Runnicles, and
Leonard Slatkin, among many others.
Aside from numerous concert and recital appearances per season,
Ax still finds time to record with his colleagues. He has regularly appeared with cellist
Yo-Yo Ma since the '70s. Together, the two have earned five Grammy Awards; one was for an album of clarinet trios with
Ma and
Richard Stoltzman. With
Isaac Stern,
Jaime Laredo, and
Yo-Yo Ma, he toured the U.S. performing works by
Brahms,
Fauré,
Beethoven, and
Mozart.
Ax and
Ma continued their partnership in 2020 with a series of recitals at Carnegie Hall, and the pair performed several times spontaneously for essential workers during the coronavirus lockdowns that year.
Ax teaches at the Juilliard School and resides in New York with his wife, with whom he has two children.